The Met Gala is an opportunity for fashion houses, stylists and celebrities to push boundaries, so it's no wonder the theme usually requires some explaining. This year, the Met Gala theme was 'Superfine: Tailoring Black Style' to honour and explore the fashion narrative and history of Black dandyism.
Black Dandyism – a style, aesthetic and cultural tradition rooted in defiance, elegance, and self-definition – sees this year's focus on sharp suits, menswear and Black sartorial history. It proves that the theme is not just a dress code, at least not this year, but rather a celebration of culture.
The story behind the 'Superfine: Tailoring Black Style' Met Gala theme
It was inspired by Monica L. Miller’s 2009 book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity. 'Dandyism has been used to think positively about Black people, their ambitions, and aspirations, and negatively about those very same aspirations,' Monica said. It is every bit as political as it is sartorial and almost all of the biggest looks of the night were steeped in cultural history in some way. Zendaya's tailored, white suit, for example, was a nod to Diana Ross in the 1975 film Mahogany. While co-chair Colman Domingo's blue robe paid homage to a similar robe once worn by the late, iconic stylist André Leon Talley.
It's a theme that is particularly poignant for Colman. Prior to the event he said, 'I'm recognising that it means more to me than I even imagined. It's someone who's been creating art and spaces who has knowledge and history, who's always trying to interrogate who we are, and understanding who's come before.'
'You walk into a space, and you get met with some items, some artists, some artisans, people who have defined and redefined themselves, especially when it comes to the Black male experience.'
'It's extraordinary,' he continued. 'I know where I'm standing in history right now, at least my little part of it...my little droplet. If I can point someone's head back to history to understand how we got here, because it's not just because I'm here.'
Colman concluded, 'It's because André Leon Talley was here. It's because all these other artisans, people, and human beings were here. And so, it's extraordinary. I think it's going to be very impactful, and potent, and surprisingly, very emotional.'
What is a dandy?
A dandy is someone, historically a man, who places importance on physical appearance and personal grooming, refined language and leisurely hobbies. A dandy could be a self-made man both in person and persona – someone who emulated aristocratic style regardless of their own class or background.
In the chapter 'The Dandiacal Body; of the novel Sartor Resartus, Thomas Carlyle described the dandy's symbolic social function as a man and a persona of refined masculinity: 'A Dandy is a Clothes-wearing Man, a Man whose trade, office, and existence consists in the wearing of Clothes. Every faculty of his soul, spirit, purse, and person is heroically consecrated to this one object, the wearing of Clothes wisely and well: so that as others dress to live, he lives to dress...'
The 2025 Met Gala showcased some exceptional tributes to dandyism and the art Black tailoring. There is no doubt it will be a theme well remembered by the Met Gala history books.
Nikki Peach is a writer at Grazia UK, working across pop culture, TV and news. She has also written for the i, i-D and the New Statesman Media Group and covers all things TV for Grazia (treating high and lowbrow shows with equal respect).