No group chat videos this time! On February 4, 2025, Vogue announced the official dress code for the Met Gala. Based on the Costume Institute’s forthcoming spring exhibit Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, Vogue reported the dress code is “Tailored for You.” The dress code gives us an immediate impression of highly customized pieces made for their wearers, the epitome of couture, but it’s probably more complicated than that.
This year’s benefit is based on the Costume Institute’s spring exhibition Superfine: Tailoring Black Style which “presents a cultural and historical examination of Black style from the 18th century to the present through an exploration of the concept of dandyism.” The exhibition and the Gala take inspiration from Monica L. Miller’s book, Slaves to Fashion: Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity with a particular focus on the style of Black men.
But what is dandyism? In general, dandyism is a phenomenon in men’s fashion focused on refined appearances and tailored styles. Black dandyism goes well beyond appearance and instead is an intersection of fashion, race, and class. Ebony explains, “Dandyism was first introduced into the Black style sphere in eighteenth-century England amidst the trans-Atlantic slave trade in which exceptionally dapper Black slaves became fixtures of wealth for white slave owners, as Monica L. Miller explains in her book: Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity.”
As the first Met Gala to focus on menswear in more than 20 years, the stakes are high for attendees and fashion designers who will bring their styles and designs to the red carpet this year. This may be why the dress code is so vague. “Tailored to you” leaves space for designers and their models to explore what it means to focus on physical appearance and the details of a look. We are sure to see many pieces that have rich stories behind them that explore personal stories as well as symbols and choices that lead us to more historical inspiration. In a press release, The Met said the dress code “is purposefully designed to both provide guidance and invite creative interpretation.”
The event is led by a major cast of co-chairs, including Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, A$AP Rocky, Pharrell Williams, and Anna Wintour, and honorary chair LeBron James and a newly revived Host Committee—André 3000, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Simone Biles and Jonathan Owens, Grace Wales Bonner, Jordan Casteel, Dapper Dan, Doechii, Ayo Edebiri, Edward Enninful, Jeremy O. Harris, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Rashid Johnson, Regina King, Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee, Audra McDonald, Janelle Monáe, Jeremy Pope, Angel Reese, Sha’Carri Richardson, Olivier Rousteing, Tyla, USHER, and Kara Walker.
Superfine: Tailoring Black Style will feature fashion and photography as well as “more than 30 essays by various thought leaders, artists, and other distinguished voices.”
The Met Gala 2025 will take place at The Met Fifth Avenue in New York City on Monday, May 5.
