The Met Gala has returned for 2025, and with it comes a slew of fashion-wearing stars in their droves. Here’s everything you need to know about The Met Gala 2025’s theme.

Each year, the Met Gala chooses a theme based on the spring exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, which also acts as a dress code for guests at the event. The Met Gala 2025 marks the first time since 2003’s exhibition, Bravehearts: Men in Skirts, that the focus will be on menswear.

Co-chairs for this year include Emmy award-winner Colman Domingo, Formula One racer Lewis Hamilton, rapper A$AP Rocky, musician and producer Pharrell Williams, and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. Basketball legend LeBron James is also on the panel as an honorary chair, but will not be attending due to a knee injury.

This year’s committee includes the Grammy-Award-winning rapper Doechii, as well The Bear‘s Ayo Edebiri, former British Vogue fashion guru Edward Enninful, singer Janelle Monáe, Pose star Jeremy Pope, and athlete Sha’Carri Richardson, who has said she was “beyond excited” to help host the event, “celebrating the undeniable impact of Black creativity on fashion and culture”.

What is the Met Gala theme for 2025?

This year’s dress code is “Tailored for You”, which coincides with the spring exhibition Superfine: Tailoring Black Style. The theme is inspired by Monica Miller’s book, Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity.

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art website explains: “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style explores the importance of sartorial style to the formation of Black identities in the Atlantic diaspora. [It] chronicles the ways in which Black people have used dress and fashion to transform their identities and imagine new ways of embodying political and social possibilities.

“The exhibition interprets the concept as both an aesthetic and a strategy, using garments, paintings, prints, photographs, decorative arts, literary texts and film to explore this cultural and historical phenomenon from the 18th century to today.”

What is Black dandyism?

The Met Gala 2025 theme focuses on Black style and the history of Black dandyism. While Dandyism is believed to have its roots in 18th-century Britain and saw the redundancy of aristocratic dress in favour of tailoring, as per Vogue, Black dandyism is a movement which reclaims power and resistance. 

In the post-Emancipation period, Black dandyism combined Black culture with European-style fashion. The fashion revolution came into its own during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 30s, which was an artistic and cultural movement at the helm of the African American community in New York City. 

The Black dandy of the time used fashion to position themselves in society after being subjected to racial segregation and discrimination for so long. Their style is characterised by smart suits and polished dress shoes, and has evolved into the personalised tailoring, bright colour schemes and accessories that have made their mark on the menswear we know today. 

Who are the Met Gala 2025 designers to look out for?

According to Complex editor-in-chief Aria Hughes, Grace Wales Bonner is one of the designers to watch at the Met Gala 2025. 

“Her work has been about the study of Black male identity and then reflecting that through fashion in a very modern but historical way,” she told CBS News. “So I think she’s a current-day designer who really embodies Black dandyism.”

She is also hoping to see archival pieces on this year’s blue carpet from Black designers, including Patrick Kelly or Willi Smith. 

Other fashion houses noted for taking inspiration from Black dandyism include the likes of Balmain, led by designer Olivier Rousteing, Thom Browne, Martine Rose, Dior Men, led by designer Kim Jones, and Savile Row. 

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