“The Blackest Met Gala Ever”: This Wasn’t Just A Red Carpet Moment, But A Cultural Reckoning Centuries In The Making

“God created Black people, and Black people created style.” With that iconic line from George C Wolfe, actor Colman Domingo opened the Met Gala press preview on Monday 5 May – and set the tone for what might be the most culturally resonant Met Gala yet.

Everyone was there for a first look at Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, the landmark new exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York, which traces how Black diasporic style – through the lens of the dandy – has shaped fashion forever. It’s bold, historic and long-overdue. And Colman? The perfect frontman. As co-chair of the Met Gala itself (themed ‘Tailored For You’), he showed up serving: custom purple checked Ozwald Boateng suit, Kangol cocked at a flawless angle and a vintage Boucheron brooch catching the light like a crown jewel. He wasn’t just introducing the show: he was the show. Black excellence, elegance and power, personified. Because this wasn’t just about tailored clothes. It was about acknowledging a tailoring legacy.

By the time the sun dipped and camera flashes lit up the carpet, Colman’s words were already ringing true. From the off, it was clear this was not going to be your average Met. As guests began to arrive, an unexpected interlude came in the form of all-Black choir Silk and Sound, who burst onto the carpet in crisp black tailcoats for a performance of Ain’t No Mountain High Enough so joyous, even Anna Wintour herself sang along. So far, so stylish. 

The daffodil-printed carpet (created by artist Cy Gavin, referencing the Greek myth of Narcissus – the daffodil’s scientific name – and its tale of self-recognition and love) played host to a line-up of guests more committed to the theme than we’ve seen in years. While past Galas have seen celebrities sporting lacklustre interpretations of the theme (remember last year’s less-than-groundbreaking floral designs, or the limp takes on ‘camp’ for 2019?), 2025 saw the majority of attendees step up to the mark: not only committing to the overall tailoring brief, but going the extra mile to honour the legacy of Black dandies from times gone by.

Leading the charge was Colman, in not one but two custom OTT Valentino looks (including a sweeping royal blue cape in homage to celebrated modern dandy and former US Vogue creative director, the late André Leon Talley). Fellow co-chair and race car driver Lewis Hamilton stepped out in an all-white Wales Bonner ensemble – the designer making a poignant Met Gala debut, crafting a suit seeped in historic details. And 2025 marked the return of Rihanna to the Met, who debuted her third pregnancy in a Marc Jacobs skirt suit that paid homage to the Zoot suits of the Harlem Renaissance – perfectly tailored to her bump, of course. What is usually a glorified catwalk for some of fashion’s most creative looks was, this year, a celebration of something rather more considered: it was an homage to style; a celebration of community and recognition of history.

Inside, this attention to detail continued. The exhibition space was designed by artist Torkwase Dyson, with bespoke mannequin heads by Tanda Francis, known for her sculptures of African heads and masks. The dinner, curated by Nigerian American chef Kwame Onwuachi, brought the flavour. And the official exhibition catalogue was shot by Tyler Mitchell, the first Black photographer to shoot a Vogue cover. As presenter Blakeley Thornton declared, it was, “the Blackest Met Gala you have ever seen.” And he wasn’t wrong. Between the exhibition, which opens to the public on 10 May, and the energy of the night, it felt like a real turning point in fashion; a moment of recognition for the overlooked impact Black communities have had on culture. Finally, the world’s biggest style stage is catching up.

Met Gala Milestones

That sense of reckoning wasn’t just felt in the room – it was built into the foundations of the night. Fashion insiders know the drill: the first Monday in May is reserved for the Met Gala, when A-listers floods the steps of The Met for the most-watched night in fashion, hosted by Anna Wintour, Vogue, and the museum to raise funds for its Costume Institute. But this year wasn’t business as usual. It marked a series of historic firsts. For starters, it’s the first time The Met has held an exhibition that focuses on race in the 155 years since it opened. It’s also the first time the Costume Institute has ever dedicated a show to designers of Colour. It’s their first menswear exhibit since 2003. And, it’s the first time that all the Gala’s co-chairs (Colman, Lewis Hamilton, Pharrell Williams, A$AP Rocky and LeBron James) and members of the newly revived host committee (which includes Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Simone Biles, Doechii, Edward Enninful, Jeremy O. Harris and Usher, to name a few) were Black. This platforming of Black history, designers and artistry, during one of the biggest nights in fashion, on the steps of one of the West’s most celebrated cultural institutions, is a seismic shift centuries in the making.

To understand why this moment matters – why it felt so personal, so political – you have to look at where it started. At the roots of the exhibition, and the cultural force at its core: the Black dandy. “I wanted to stage a show on race that could use our collection to tell a story that had been absent from the conversation both within the museum and outside,” Andrew Bolton, the Costume Institute’s curator in charge, told the New York Times. “This is a first of its kind.”

The concept of Superfine is based around the 2009 book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity by Monica L Miller, which charts the emergence of the Black dandy in Enlightenment England to his evolution into his modern counterparts today. Monica also serves as the exhibition’s first guest curator and (another first) as the only Black curator to have worked on an exhibition at The Met.

The Black Dandy’s Legacy

Throughout both her book and the exhibition, Miller focuses on the dandy, who by definition is “a man, especially in the past, who dressed in expensive, fashionable clothes and was very interested in his own appearance”, with origins in the 18th century. However, this took on new meaning when race was brought into the equation. During this time, at the height of the Atlantic slave trade, dandyism was imposed on enslaved Black people, who were forced to wear uniforms that reflected their owners’ social status. Tasked with maintaining the flamboyant ‘dandy’ attire for their owners, Black men began to adapt this style for themselves, tailoring their own uniforms with a unique flair (spot the significance of the Met Gala theme here) – establishing a strong sartorial identity that transcended their societal position. Once released from slavery, many of these men continued to reclaim and reimagine the clothing of their oppressors and turn it into a symbol of their liberation – redefining ideas in society of who and what a Black man could be.

The title Superfine therefore isn’t just a name – it’s a declaration, a nod to the legacy of Black freedom and fashion that stretches back centuries. It comes from the memoir of Olaudah Equiano, an enslaved man from West Africa who, after buying his liberty in 1766, spent “above eight pounds of my money for a suit of superfine clothes to dance with at my freedom”.

Throughout the decades, sharp tailoring, luxurious fabrics, polished shoes and bold accessories – everything from oversized hats to brooches and jewellery – define iterations of the Black dandy’s style. Superfine travels through time via fashion, art and photography, charting these many forms dandyism can take: whether it’s the livery from dandified servants in the 1800s; the oversized Zoot suits of the Harlem Renaissance dandies in the 1930s and 1940s (the generous cut making a statement at a time when fabric was being rationed in the run-up to the Second World War); the reimagination of dandyism in 1990s, in which designers such as Dapper Dan revolutionised the style by bringing luxury logos to streetwear; and more contemporary pieces that fuse influences from all of the above, by the likes of the late Virgil Abloh and committee members Olivier Rousteing and Grace Wales Bonner.

The Impact Of Interpretation

It is this nuanced exploration of the intrinsic link between Black social history and modern Black identity; between sartorial expression and liberation; between being owned, and owning your identity, that brings this exhibition – and this year’s Met Gala – to life. “Part of the tension related to Black people and their relationship to fashion is that it seems required for Black people in power, or Black people who want certain forms of power, to dress in a particular kind of way,” Monica told the Guardian. “It’s about understanding that the present moment is always informed by both history and our aspirations.”

Which is why the dandified details of this year’s Met carpet looks held so much meaning: those references matter. Pharrell’s white double-breasted jacket, which he designed for Louis Vuitton, featured 15,000 hand-sewn pearls – perhaps a nod to the intricate embellishments enslaved Black people added to their uniforms. Musician Teyana Taylor showed up in another suitably flamboyant take on the Zoot suit, created by Marc Jacobs in collaboration with celebrated costume designer Ruth E Carter and emblazoned with ‘Harlem Rose’ on the train. The dandy’s signature silk scarf was knotted around necks and looped into exaggerated bow ties by Yara Shahidi and Doechii – whose logo-emblazoned LV suit also infused traditional tailoring with the 1990s branding-heavy aesthetic. And dapper oversized hats were seen on everyone from Zendaya and Jodie Turner-Smith to Lupita Nyong’o and Shaboozey, while co-chair A$AP Rocky carried a cane-umbrella hybrid that wouldn’t have looked out of place on the arm of dandies across the decades.

Style As Power

But these weren’t just fashion statements – they were acts of cultural storytelling. This year’s Met felt more political than performative. Superfine is the Costume Institute’s latest effort to diversify its collection, which began in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd, when the Black Lives Matter movement brought wider awareness across the globe. That same year, the Met’s website credited 54 designers as highlights of the Costume Institute’s collection. Only four were non-white. None of them were Black. Since then, around 150 pieces by designers of Colour have been acquired, some of which feature in the Superfine exhibition.

The significance of this moment is also about resistance. The current political climate, especially in the US, has seen concerted efforts to roll back diversity in cultural programming. From President Trump’s overtaking of the Kennedy Center arts institution to his signing of an executive order that demands a temporary pause on funding for exhibitions that “divide Americans by race” at the Smithsonian museums, the push against inclusivity has been real. So to have an exhibition – and a global celebration – that that not only honours Black contributions to fashion but also shows how Black people have used fashion as a tool of reinvention and boundary-pushing throughout American history? That’s revolutionary.

As the A-list’s sartorial homages to Black dandyism continue to flood our feeds post-Met Gala, it’s essential to remember its roots go beyond what you see on the carpet. Black dandyism isn’t just a look – it’s about the conscious act of taking up space through what you wear; an acclimation of power and self-realisation through fashion. It’s about reclaiming visibility in a world that’s long tried to suppress it.

In a viral video captured ahead of this year’s Met Gala, super-stylist Law Roach (who was behind five looks on this year’s carpet, including those worn by Zendaya and André 3000) took to the mic at Vogue’s pre-party, announcing, “They done f*cked up and made the Met ball Black!” The room erupted in celebration, and rightly so. Because it is a moment. Noise is being made. Recognition is finally happening. And while it may take time for the impact of this showcase of Black talent, style, creativity and culture to truly make itself known – one thing is certain: the Met Gala 2025 will be remembered as a night that changed the course of history.

Superfine: Tailoring Black Style is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute for an extended run from 10 May to 26 October