The 2025 Costume Institute show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art will take inspiration from the work of author Monica L. Miller and explore the legacy of Black dandyism.
On Wednesday, October 9, the Costume Institute announced that the exhibition title and theme of next year’s Met Gala is “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.”
The co-chairs are style stars in their own right and will include actor Colman Domingo, race car driver Lewis Hamilton, rappers A$AP Rocky and Pharrell Williams, and, of course, Condé Nast creative director and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. NBA star LeBron James will also serve as honorary co-chair.
According to Vogue, the exhibit will explore a style subculture called the Black dandy. It will “illustrate how Black people transformed from being enslaved and stylized as luxury items, acquired like any other signifier of wealth and status, to autonomous self-fashioning individuals who are global trendsetters.”
Drawing inspiration from guest curator Miller’s 2009 book, Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, it will explore the history and legacy of Black dandyism through garments, paintings, photographs and various artifacts while tracing the style of Black men from the 18th century to today.
Ahead of the announcement, Miller described Black dandyism as “a strategy and a tool to rethink identity, to reimagine the self in a different context. To really push a boundary — especially during the time of enslavement, to really push a boundary on who and what counts as human, even.”
As the second Costume Institute exhibition since 2003’s “Men in Skirts” to focus exclusively on menswear, and the first since Andrew Bolton became curator in charge to involve a guest curator, this Monday in May is set to go down in red carpet history.
“I feel that the show itself marks a really important step in our commitment to diversifying our exhibitions and collections, as well as redressing some of the historical biases within our curatorial practice,” Bolton told Vogue. “It’s very much about making fashion at The Met more of a gateway to access and inclusivity.”
“What’s interesting about Black dandyism is it’s not just an identity,” Bolton continued. “Obviously, you have people like Iké Udé, the photographer and artist who self-identifies as a dandy [Udé is serving as Special Consultant to the exhibition], but it’s also a concept as well […] I think a lot of Black designers today are exploring the different modalities that the Black dandy represents — things like freedom, dissonance, theatricality.”
In the wake of the surge in support for the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, roughly 150 pieces by designers of color have been acquired by the Costume Institute, some of which feature in “Superfine.”
While we wait for the official dress code for next year’s gala, style enthusiasts can get a leg up on what’s to come on fashion’s biggest night by picking up Miller’s book.
“Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” will be on view at the Met in New York City May 6 through October 26, 2025.
