Black Dandyism and the 2025 MET Gala theme
Words by Maria De Feo
Eds. Mistral Zerbi
https://therake.com/default/stories/superfine-tailoring-black-style-is-the-met-gala-2025-theme
The 5th of May has always been my favourite day of the year. Usually, I look forward to it because it’s my birthday; I am nothing if not self-centred. This year, though, the 5th is exciting for a different reason. The Met Gala will take place on that day with, in my humble opinion, one of the most interesting and potentially impactful dress codes ever. The dress code is “Tailored for you.” Reading these last three words without further context, you might be puzzled about the amount of praise I have dedicated to this year’s Met Gala. What is so revolutionary about tailoring? Shouldn’t any outfit at a gala be tailored to the wearer? To understand the relevance of the dress code, one must first be made aware of the exhibition to which the Met Gala theme is closely connected, which is called “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” This exhibit in the Metropolitan Museum of Art will open on the same day as the Met Gala and is what has dictated its theme. To understand both the Gala’s and the exhibit’s theme, it will be helpful to explain its origin.
https://helios.iframe.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/30994682/superfine-tailoring-black-style-met-gala-2025s-theme-explained/
The exhibit and the dress code are based on the book “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity,” written by Monica L. Miller, a scholar of contemporary African American and Afrodiasporic literature and cultural studies. In her work, the author explores the phenomenon of black dandyism. In 18th Century England, slave owners would impose their own clothing choices on black people, stylizing them “as luxury items.” Black Dandyism was the phenomenon in which the victims of these impositions used fashion, which had been used on them as a medium of oppression, to reinstate their agency. They would tweak the clothing forced on them to make it their own, to make it signify their emancipation. The garments, which had been intermediate agents of imprisonment, became tools to show resistance.
https://www.boredpanda.com/fans-react-met-gala-2025-dress-code/
One wonders, then, what to expect from the Met Gala guests. How will they honour and do justice to this theme? There is, as Time magazine explains, a concern on the part of many about cultural appropriation. Some, indeed, fear that non-black guests will respond to the theme with inappropriate or even offensive outfit choices. These concerns are, of course, well-motivated, especially if we consider that some of the Gala’s past invitees have often been, in their outfit choices, insensitive to say the least (cough cough-the Kardashians). Even independently of this fact, it must be complex to mirror such a nuanced theme through an outfit. However, the fact that the theme is so important and has so many historical implications might force both the guests and the audience to do their research, to understand a topic that they might otherwise have remained ignorant about. The most powerful way to combat discrimination is to educate. To give space and mainstream accessibility to the work of a scholar who has dedicated her life to African studies is to offer an opportunity for black voices to be heard and to teach. In addition to this, a Met Gala focused on Black Dandyism will inevitably put black designers on the centre stage, both established and emerging. This theme is, then, extremely promising and will start conversations that are undoubtedly needed. As to the complexity of the dress code and the difficulties that could be faced in following it, fashion is a form of art. Art is, very often if not always, political. I believe the theme will serve as a motivator for many designers to push creative boundaries, tell stories and convey messages through their clothing. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.