When guests arrive at the 2025 Met Gala for “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style”—the spring 2025 exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute—they’ll do so having considered the dress code, announced today as “Tailored for You.” Per the Met, the dress code is a nod to the exhibition’s focus on menswear and is “purposefully designed to provide guidance and invite creative interpretation.”
“Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” will explore the role of sartorial style in forming Black identities, focusing on the emergence, significance, and proliferation of the Black dandy. Composed of clothing, photographs, fine art, historical texts, and artifacts, it’s the first Costume Institute exhibit to focus on menswear since 2003’s “Men in Skirts,” and was inspired by Guest Curator Monica L. Miller’s 2009 book, Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity.
“Dandyism can seem frivolous, but it often poses a challenge to or a transcendence of social and cultural hierarchies,” Miller said in today’s statement. “It asks questions about identity, representation, and mobility in relation to race, class, gender, sexuality, and power. This exhibition explores dandyism as both a pronouncement and a provocation.”
The show also reflects The Met’s ongoing commitment to authentically diversifying its exhibitions. “What makes it possible to translate Monica’s book Slaves to Fashion into an exhibition,” said Costume Institute Curator in Charge Andrew Bolton, “is our collection of high-style menswear, which serves as a foundation for imagining and realizing a sartorial history of Black dandyism.”
Now, about the dress code: “Tailored for You” can be interpreted in a myriad of ways, but mostly means embracing looks reflective of one’s personal style. We can surely expect inspired takes on suiting—from versions of the zoot silhouette popularized by jazz musicians in the 1940s, to the bold, colorful styles worn by Congolese sapeurs—though other menswear staples, such as hats, ties, and perhaps canes, brooches, and pocket squares, are likely to have a strong showing, too.
Indeed, attendees might look to Met Gala co-chairs Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, A$AP Rocky and Pharrell Williams—along with honorary chair LeBron James—for inspiration. Think Domingo, arriving at the 2024 Critic’s Choice Awards in a mustard yellow Valentino suit and textured gold coat, or Hamilton en route to the Miami Grand Prix paddock in a diamanté tank top and sleek black shades. We’ve also seen Rocky adorn his braided hair with silk scarves and beaded clips; Williams in Billionaire Boys Club graphic tees and Louis Vuitton leather flares of his own design; and James in custom Thom Browne during the 2018 NBA Finals.
