NEW YORK – Pinstripes. All Ways. Hats galore. Pantsuits. Gown suits. Zoot suits. Canes. A single cigar (looking at you Madonna) — and expert displays of tailoring. The Met Gala crowd, for the most part, did the Black dandy menswear theme proud at fashion's biggest party of the year.
“Those that researched the moment and pulled inspiration from history made it modern and their own. I loved it,” said Holly Alford, assistant dean and an associate professor in the fashion and merchandising program at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts.
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Among her favorites: Colman Domingo's homage to dandy icon André Leon Talley. It was one of many that honored the towering fashion figure, a rare Black fashion editor in a largely white industry. And among others in odes to Talley, who died in 2022, were Anne Hathaway in a Carolina Herrera dress she picked specifically for him.
“We wanted André Leon Talley to look down from heaven and scream ‘GLAMOUR,’” Hathaway said on the Vogue livestream Monday night.
Inventive glamour energy of the night
A glamorous night it was, and an inventive one at that amid a broad White House siege on DEI programs and protections that serve immigrants, LGBTQ+ people and myriad others. What does that have to do with fashion and the theme this year? Everything, in terms of Black power, ownership, heritage and, most importantly, freedom.
What, exactly, was the suggested dress code? It was “Tailored for You,” inspired by Black dandyism through time, the subject of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's spring show at its Costume Institute.
On the blue carpet, a bit soggy from drenching rain, guests played with the fundamentals of fashion to make their looks their own with the help of designers and stylists. And many honored their heritages in special touches like the cowrie shells on the cuffs of Lewis Hamilton's Wales Bonner jacket.
The shells pay homage to Black diasporic culture, to spirituality, to memory, said Rikki Byrd, assistant professor of visual culture studies at the University of Texas at Austin and founder of the Black Fashion Archive.
Tessa Thompson honored Talley with a fan adorned with his image.
“It’s representative of a church fan and André Leon Talley often talked about his first introduction to fashion was through his church,” Byrd said.
Teyana Taylor was a standout for Shantrelle P. Lewis, author of “Dandy Lion: The Black Dandy and Street Style.” With her cane, in her red velvet cape, “she understood the assignment,” Lewis said. Taylor's cape was emblazoned with her nickname in honor of her home turf: “Harlem Rose.” And she, like Swizz Beatz, donned a durag.
Some underwhelmed by how guests did
Lewis, who has been seminal in understanding dandyism, said the attire on the carpet was generally underwhelming.
“The lack of color, the lack of African print, even the absence of African designers. I said, ‘Where is the Black dandyism?’” she said. “No sartorial risks were taken.”
Big risks? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Brandon Tan, fashion director for Cosmopolitan, was satisfied.
“A classic silhouette can be completely reimagined by something as simple as the color and fabrication of the textile, as seen on Henry Golding,” he said. “Inversely, a very classic gray wool can be totally remixed by the cut and silhouette like Walton Goggins’ kilt look by Thom Browne.”
Who missed the boat altogether?
A few simply showed up in comparatively routine black tuxedos (hello James Corden) and questionable spins on the theme (Sorry, Halle Berry, but that was a lot of skin in the crotch area).
Coattails of varying lengths were a huge trend amid the sea of hats and head pieces anticipated ahead of the gala that brought together A-listers from the worlds of sports, entertainment, music, art, literature, politics and more to raise money for the Costume Institute.
Black and white looks carried the night, with enough pops of color to keep it interesting.
Colman Domingo and his many fans
Kevin Huynh, InStyle's fashion director, also praised Domingo, who wore a huge Talley-esque collared blue cape first, then ditched the cape to reveal a pearled window-pane jacket he wore with dot accessories.
“As the undisputed king of the red carpet, his regal look was beyond appropriate for the night’s theme,” Huynh said. “He fully embodied the spirit of dandyism in not one but two statement-making looks from Valentino, and he aced it in terms of being unapologetically bold and flawlessly fanciful.”
That “fearlessness and individuality,” he said, is what the night was all about.
“After a marathon awards season run, his Met Gala red carpet reveal was well worth the wait. From the moment he stepped out of The Carlyle draped in a jewel-toned Valentino cape, it was clear that more was coming,” said Claire Stern Milch, Elle’s digital director.
“And when he finally arrived on the steps, his custom three-piece zoot suit, also designed by Alessandro Michele, was a playful and sophisticated nod to the theme,” she added.
Milch called Domingo’s oversized polka dot flower on one lapel undoubtedly the highlight. The look, she said, was the “perfect marriage of classic tailoring and avant-garde flair.”
Nikki Ogunnaike, editor-in-chief of Marie Claire, noted that suiting of all kinds wasn't a huge surprise, considering the style guidance from Vogue's Anna Wintour, who puts the gala together each year.
“My favorites included Ayo Edebiri in Ferragamo, Tracee Ellis Ross in Marc Jacobs, Zendaya and Lisa in Louis Vuitton, Colman Domingo in Valentino and Mindy Kaling in Harbison, all of whom interpreted dandyism and suiting in their own unique way,” she said.
Athletes turned out at 2025 Met Gala
Athletes, meanwhile, also took the spotlight. Tailoring for them is a special craft that Tom Marchitelli, custom menswear designer and stylist, takes into consideration with all the suits he creates for NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball players.
“These guys have these superhero builds, as I like to say, and they can’t walk into any store on Fifth Ave, in Rodeo, anywhere and just pick out a suit off the rack to fit them,” he said.
Marchitelli said he appreciated the clean form-fitting looks on Philadelphia Eagles players Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley.
“To have this many athletes showcased, I think that says a lot about how important sport is to culture, pop culture in America, how influential the athletes are,” he said.
Black designers represented
The night's vibe was inspired by the exhibit called “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” It's the first Costume Institute show to focus exclusively on Black designers, and the first in more than 20 years devoted to menswear.
Big-time Black designers and smaller brands of creatives of color were represented on the carpet. They included Sergio Hudson, LaQuan Smith and Ozwald Boateng, a former wunderkind of Savile Row.
Others who were not so much
So who are some others who blew it, or didn't even try to spin the theme?
Blackpink's Lisa might have walked the line in her look by Vuitton, a gala sponsor. She went pantless with little faces on black undies to go with her matching jacket and LV logo sheer stockings.
Some on social media thought the faces were Rosa Parks. They weren't, a representative told The Cut, explaining they were “portraits of figures who have been a part of the artist’s life.”
OK. So it goes. Undie portraits might not be a good idea in general.
As for Corden, The Cut posted a video of him in his mere mortal look and viewers threw some barbs, including one who called him “James Boredon” giving “a total snooze fest per usual.”
Ouch, James.
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For more coverage of the 2025 Met Gala, visit https://apnews.com/hub/met-gala.