Met Gala 2025 Was a Black Style Revival
In a dazzling return to form and meaning, the 2025 Met Gala honored the theme “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” placing Black dandyism at the heart of its cultural and sartorial spectacle. While 18th-century fashion plates like those in the Gallery of Fashion once illustrated elite European aesthetics designed to exclude, this year’s exhibition and dress code boldly reclaimed those forms through a Black diasporic lens—transforming symbols of privilege into declarations of power, pride, and personal narrative.
Held at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the gala mirrored the Costume Institute’s spring exhibition of the same name, exploring three centuries of Black fashion, style, and resistance. The theme was inspired by Monica L. Miller’s seminal book Slaves to Fashion, a foundational text on how Black individuals have historically used clothing as both identity and subversion.
AMG Presents Moonboots
One of the most talked-about moments of the night came courtesy of Rihanna. She revealed her pregnancy in a sculpted Marc Jacobs ensemble—merging classic dandy motifs with Afro-futurist panache. The sharply tailored look, complete with a structured corset and top hat, embodied the evening’s poetic balance of tradition and transformation.
Supermodel Alton Mason stunned in a look inspired by the anime Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, combining precise tailoring with dramatic silhouettes and diasporic symbolism. His outfit highlighted fashion’s ever-expanding cultural map, where Black style merges with global pop narratives.
Co-chair Colman Domingo delivered one of the evening’s most conceptually rich ensembles: a custom Valentino drawing from 1940s zoot suits—a symbol of resistance during segregation-era America—and Moorish design elements referencing ancestral heritage. A gold grill engraved with his late mother’s name added a deeply intimate layer, underscoring the personal storytelling woven throughout the night.
Build Stunning Websites with Ease!
Design a professional website in minutes with a powerful drag-and-drop builder and secure hosting included.
Get Started NowFashion tributes also nodded to the legacies of Josephine Baker, Diana Ross, and André Leon Talley, as celebrities like Zendaya and Gigi Hadid paid homage through styling choices. These references were more than costume—they were dialogues across generations, honoring pioneers who redefined elegance on their own terms.
The 2025 Met Gala didn’t merely celebrate fashion. It redefined it—as a living archive, a cultural critique, and an act of joyful resistance. In tailoring Black style, this year’s gala stitched together more than fabric. It wove memory, voice, and visibility into something enduring, subversive, and exquisitely alive.
