Met Gala 2025: All we know about ‘Tailoring Black Style’ theme for event

One of fashion's most revered events, The Met Gala, is already around the corner. Scheduled to take place on May 5, 2025, in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, this year's event features the theme "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style."

The theme is an ode to Black Dandyism, capturing the elegance and the unique style of Black men that dates way back to the eighteenth century. This year's concept goes way beyond fashion; it can rather be seen as a cultural movement that sheds light on the historical influence of Black heritage on modern pop culture.

According to a press release from the Met Museum, Andrew Bolton, the Met Gala's curator, said:

"Superfine: Tailoring Black Style is our department’s first exhibition devoted to menswear in more than 20 years. The show also reflects our ongoing commitment to diversifying our exhibitions in a way that is authentic to The Costume Institute. What makes it possible to translate Monica’s book, Slaves to Fashion, into an exhibition is our collection of high-style menswear, which serves as a foundation for imagining and realizing this important sartorial history.”

More details on the 2025 Met Gala "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style."

In line with this year's Met Gala theme, the Superfine exhibition will be categorized into twelve sections, each explaining the totality of the exhibition selectively.

These categories include Cosmopolitanism, Ownership, Respectability, Presence, Jook, Cool, Champion, Heritage, Disguise, Beauty, Distinction, and Freedom.

The exhibition would comprise photographs, garments, and paintings, amongst others, from four skilled artists, including Tyler Mitchell, Torkwase Dyson, Andre Grenard Matswa, and Brooklyn's Tanda Francis. These exhibits would pay homage to the prehistoric looks of African American men centuries ago.

Barnard College's very own Prof. Monica L. Miller, the school's chair of Africana studies, is teaming up with head curator Andrew Bolton as an invited curator.

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In Miller's statement to The Met's press, she explained the ideology behind the exhibition.

“Dandyism can seem frivolous, but it often poses a challenge to or a transcendence of social and cultural hierarchies. It asks questions about identity, representation, and mobility in relation to race, class, gender, sexuality, and power. The exhibition explores this concept as both a pronouncement and a provocation. The exhibition title refers to ‘superfine’ not only as the quality of a particular fabric—'superfine wool’—but also as a particular attitude related to feeling especially good in one’s own body, in clothes that express the self,” she stated.

She further explains how this year's theme focuses on self-imagery and individuality and depicts its African origin.

"Wearing superfine and being superfine are, in many ways, the subject of this exhibition. And the separateness, distinction, and movement between these two states of ‘being’ in the African diaspora from the 1780s to today animates the show.” she added.

The co-chairs of the 2025 Met Gala include ASAP Rocky, Pharrell Williams, Colman Domingo, Anna Wintour, Lewis Hamilton, and basketball icon LeBron James (an honorary chair).

The committee members of this highly anticipated event feature a lineup of individuals from different spheres of work, including athletes, actors, writers, musicians, and others.

Some of these committee members include Chimamanda Adichie, Doechi, Sha'Carri Richardson, Regina King, and Usher.

Read more: 10 surprising things you might not know about the Met Gala

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