Met Gala 2025 brings back menswear: Everything to know about this year’s theme

The 2025 Met Gala is less than a week away and fans are buzzing about this year’s theme.

Scheduled for the first Monday in May, this year’s celebration promises to gather designers, artists, A-listers, and Hollywood elite inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art to celebrate the opening of the Costume Institute’s forthcoming spring exhibition, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.”

This year’s co-chairs are Pharrell Williams, Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton, Colman Domingo, LeBron James, and A$AP Rocky. Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour will once again preside over the Met Gala as a co-chair.

The 2025 committee will include Simone Biles and her husband Jonathan Owens, Dapper Dan, Doechii, Edward Enniful, Ayo Ediebiri, Jeremy O Harris, André 3000, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Grace Wales Bonner, Jordan Casteel, Regina King, Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee, Rashid Johnson, Audra McDonald, Jeremy Pope, Angel Reese, Janelle Monáe, Sha’Carri Richardson, Usher, Olivier Rousteing, Tyla, and Kara Walker.

All guests, hand-picked by Wintour, will arrive outside the Upper East Side establishment in eccentric couture made to compliment the historic garments and accessories on display inside the exhibit, which will be open to the public between May 10 and October 26.

However, there will inevitably be individuals who go rogue, dressing in looks that aren’t on theme (think Kylie Jenner circa 2023 or Chris Hemsworth last year). But the stars are expected to pay homage to this year’s concept in unique ways while adhering to the dress code, “Tailored for You.”

So, what does theme and dress code actually mean?

For the first time in 20 years, the upcoming exhibit will focus almost exclusively on menswear, with a particular emphasis on Black dandyism.

The theme was announced back in October 2024 during a press conference held in the museum. Andrew Bolton, the head curator for the Costume Institute, said “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” was inspired by Monica L. Miller’s 2009 book, Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity. Bolton spoke alongside Miller to explain how elements of the exhibit dovetail with sections of her book.

The exhibit will feature “garments, paintings, photographs, and more – all exploring the indelible style of Black men in the context of dandyism, from the 18th-century through present day,” according to Vogue.

At the press conference, Miller noted that dandies are typically thought of as the men from the 18th century who “paid distinct and sometimes excessive attention to dress.” She also pointed out that dandyism can be both an identity and a concept.

“In the 18th century, dandyism could be both a vehicle of enslavement and liberation. It was also imposed upon and quickly taken up by Black people swept up into the political realities of the time,” she said at the press conference.

“This exhibition, ‘Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,’ explores the dialectic between being dandified and taking on dandyism as a means for self-fashioning. In the show, Black dandyism is a sartorial style that asks questions about identity, representation, mobility, race, class, gender, sexuality, power.”

Historical and contemporary garment, accessories, paintings, film, and photographs will be organized under 12 non-definitive sections to epitomize characteristics of dandyism and detail the evolution of the Black dandy. The three main themes will be Ownership, Jook, and Cosmopolitanism.

Ownership will conceptualize the intersection between “being owned” and “owning it,” featuring a purple and gold-trimmed coat worn by an enslaved man from Maryland in the 1770s. The Jook section will focus on “Zoot suits,” a finely tailored ensemble with an exaggerated silhouette that “gleefully amplifies the strut or turn on the dance floor,” as described by Miller, and worn by Malcom X. These Zoot suits, some from the 1940s, challenged societal perception around masculinity, sexuality, and acceptable Black propriety. Lastly, Cosmopolitanism will explore Black dandyism in the context of an “interconnected, sophisticated Black diasporic world.”

The remaining sections will be Presence, Distinction, Disguise, Freedom, Champion, Respectability, Heritage, Beauty, and Cool.

The work of several Black designers is expected to be on display, including that of Pharrell Williams at Louis Vuitton and the late Virgil Abloh, founder of Off-White. Artists Toykwase Dyson, André Grenard Matswa, Tyler Mitchell, and Tanda Francis will also be featured to further explore the Black dandy style. Artifacts dating back to the 18th century will be positioned next to more contemporary pieces, too.

According to Vogue, the “Tailored for You” is “purposefully designed to provide guidance and incite creative interpretation,” meaning guests should show up in garments that reflect their individual tastes and style.

This year’s guidelines will likely witness renditions of classic suiting from the double-breasted, kaleidoscopic design of a Zoot suit to the more contemporary, baggy silhouette typically seen on Willy Chavarria’s runway.