Met Gala 2025: "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style"

Chloe Osborn
May 5
2 min read

The Met Gala is one of my favorite days of the year. Yes, it’s a celebration of fashion in its most extravagant, avant-garde, and downright dramatic form, but more importantly, it serves as the primary fundraiser for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The annual event coincides with the opening of the Institute’s spring exhibition.

This year’s exhibition and theme, "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style," dives deep into the artistry of Black dandyism across the Atlantic diaspora. The corresponding dress code, "Tailored for You," invites guests to interpret the theme personally and creatively. It’s not just about dressing well; it’s about honoring a lineage of self-expression and resistance through fashion.

What makes this year’s Gala particularly exciting? It is The Costume Institute’s first menswear-focused show in over two decades. However, more than that, it’s an acknowledgment of how Black style, particularly tailored menswear, has shaped cultural identity, subverted social norms, and communicated power in ways both subtle and revolutionary.

**Unknown (American). [Studio Portrait], 1940s–50s. Gelatin silver print. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Twentieth-Century Photography Fund, 2015 (2015.330)**

The exhibit, curated by fashion historian and author Kimberly Jenkins Miller, traces a rich lineage: from enslaved Black individuals forced into ornate livery to serve as symbols of their owners’ wealth, to the zoot-suiters of the Harlem Renaissance who defiantly reclaimed space, identity, and elegance.

Miller writes that "fashion and dress have been used in a contest of power and aesthetics for Black people from the time of enslavement to the present." Dandyism, once reserved for aristocrats, became a tool for subversion and self-definition within the Black community. It allowed men, and later women, to assert presence, poise, and autonomy in a world determined to deny them visibility and respect.

The Harlem Renaissance (1920s–1930s) was a particularly creative moment for Black fashion. It was a time of artistic explosion, jazz, literature, and style. Women wore beaded gowns and furs; men experimented with sharp tailoring, flowing trousers, fedora hats, and polished shoes. Style wasn’t just about aesthetics, it was armor, language, and liberation.

The zoot suit, for instance, became a defining symbol. Its oversized proportions and bold silhouettes were not just fashionable, they were political. At a time when wartime fabric rationing was in place, wearing a zoot suit was an act of resistance, a bold assertion that Black and Brown men deserved to be seen and celebrated.

Zoot suit, American, 1940s; Alfred Z. Solomon-Janet A. Sloane Endowment Fund, 2024 (2024.2a, b). Photo © The Metropolitan Museum of Art — **Zoot suit, American, 1940s; Alfred Z. Solomon-Janet A. Sloane Endowment Fund, 2024 (2024.2a, b).** **Photo © The Metropolitan Museum of Art**

This year’s Met Gala promises to honor that spirit of boldness and cultural pride. We can expect a dazzling reinterpretation of tailored looks, elegant suiting, rich textiles, dramatic silhouettes, and nods to historic Black style icons and movements. Designers are dressing influential figures in pieces that don’t just "fit," but tell a story specifically that of lineage, defiance, and personal expression.

The Met Gala has always been more than the clothes, however, this year’s message is particularly noteworthy: Black style is not only superfine, it is foundational and timeless.

Stay tuned for a breakdown of some of our favorite looks from this year’s Met Gala!