On Wednesday morning, the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced next year's show and presumed Met Gala theme. Here is what we know.
The 2025 Met Gala theme is "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style," which is said to be an expression of Black dandyism. The exact dress code has yet to be announced.
The show is inspired by Monica Miller's work, a professor and chair of Africana Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University, and her book "Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity." The exhibit will be guest-curated by Miller and the Met's Costume Institute, Andrew Bolton. The Met exhibition, which opens with the Met Gala, will explore "the importance of clothing and style to the formation of Black identities in the Atlantic diaspora."
According to Vogue, Miller described Black dandyism as "a strategy and a tool to rethink identity, to reimagine the self in a different context. To really push a boundary -- especially during the time of enslavement, to really push a boundary on who and what counts as human, even." It'll be interesting to see how a space like The Met, where concerns about racism have long arisen through exhibition, and an industry like fashion, which is not one for inclusivity, will approach this topic.
For his part, Bolton, who discovered Miller's work during his research for the 2021 Costume Institute show, said "I think a lot of Black designers today are exploring the different modalities that the Black dandy represents -- things like freedom, dissonance, theatricality." The exhibit will be organized into 12 characteristics of Black dandy, an approach inspired by a 1934 Zora Neale Hurston essay, "The Characteristics of Negro Expression." It will begin with "Ownership," a look at an enslaved person's belongings from Maryland in the 19th century, and go through time and finding its way to contemporary pieces designed by the likes of Pharrell Williams and the late Virgil Abloh.
Next year's Met Gala co-chairs will include Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, A$AP Rocky, Pharrell Williams, and, of course, Anna Wintour. LeBron James will serve as an honorary co-chair.
Yes. The hosts must show up early, so be prepared for his look.