The Met Gala 2025: Everything You Need To Know
What can we expect at the Met Gala 2025? As one of the biggest events on the fashion calendar, the first Monday in May marks the opening of the Costume Institute’s annual exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, with a style spectacle on the iconic staircase all part of the Met Gala fantasy. Here, COLLEEN ROSS reveals everything you need to know about the Met Gala 2025, from the theme and A-list co-chairs to the exhibition itself
When is the Met Gala 2025?
The Met Gala will take place at New York’s Metropolitan Museum on Monday, May 5, 2025, in celebration of an exhibition exploring the history of Black dandyism from the 18th century to present day, and the importance of clothing and style to the formation of Black identities in the Atlantic diaspora.
Speaking to Vogue, guest curator Monica Miller, who is Chair of Africana Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University, 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.”
What is the Met Gala 2025 theme?
The Met Gala 2025 theme is Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, drawing inspiration from Miller’s 2009 book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity.
The dress code for the event has been revealed as ‘Tailored for You’, in honor of the exceptional menswear included in the exhibition, so we’re expecting to see lots of sharp tailoring and thoughtful sartorial tributes to the show’s key topics.
Who are the Met Gala 2025 co-chairs?
The Met Gala 2025’s co-chairs are Pharrell Williams, Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton and A$AP Rocky, who will join Anna Wintour and honorary co-chair Lebron James to welcome guests to the Superfine: Tailoring Black Style exhibition.
“They’re all men who aren’t afraid to take risks with their self-presentation. They take advantage of classic forms, but they also remix them and break them down in really new ways,” the Costume Institute’s Curator in Charge, Andrew Bolton, told Vogue of this year’s Met Gala co-chairs. “I think Black men and Black designers are very much at the forefront of this new renaissance in menswear.”
The event’s host committee has also been announced, which includes an array of influential names from the worlds of art, music, film, literature and sports – among them Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Spike Lee, Grace Wales Bonner, Olivier Rousteing, Simone Biles, Regina King, Ayo Edebiri, Doechii, Tyla, Janelle Monáe and Dapper Dan.
Who else will attend the Met Gala 2025?
Although she was noticeably absent from last year’s event, Rihanna has already confirmed that she will be attending the 2025 Met Gala, alongside her partner (and Met Gala co-chair), A$AP Rocky. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly last October, the singer, businesswoman and brand founder said that she will no doubt have some help from A$AP when it comes to finding the right look. Could it be that they arrive on the steps wearing coordinating outfits?
If a ‘leaked’ guest list posted by an unaffiliated account is to be believed, then we can also expect to see Zendaya, Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter on fashion’s biggest night. Watch this space…
Meanwhile, a couple that won’t be taking to the museum steps this year is Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds. According to TMZ, sources say that the pair had already decided they wouldn’t be attending long before Lively filed a lawsuit against It Ends With Us director Justin Baldoni in December. The couple’s last Met Gala appearance was in 2022, when they were co-chairs alongside Lin-Manuel Miranda and Regina King, wearing custom looks by Atelier Versace and Ralph Lauren Purple Label.
Where to watch the Met Gala 2025?
Want a front-row seat to all the action? Tune into Vogue’s Met Gala 2025 livestream – available across all its digital platforms and YouTube – for exclusive coverage, which will be hosted by singer-songwriter and actor Teyana Taylor, actor and producer La La Anthony, and actor and comedian of Saturday Night Live fame Ego Nwodim. Social-media star Emma Chamberlain will also return as special correspondent.
Plus, stay tuned to PORTER for our coverage of the night’s best-dressed attendees.
When does the Superfine: Tailoring Black Style exhibition open?
Opening to the public on May 10, 2025, the structure of the Superfine: Tailoring Black Style exhibition will be based on 12 characteristics of Black dandyism – a group of non-definitive concepts including ownership, presence, ease, and cosmopolitan-ism – inspired by Zora Neale Hurston’s 1934 essay The Characteristics of Negro Expression. Each section will tell the story of the Black dandy’s evolution over time using a variety of different objects not just limited to clothing and accessories, but drawings, paintings, photographs, film and more.
The show will play host to a number of historical and contemporary garments, including an enslaved person’s livery from 19th century Maryland, zoot suits from the ’40s, and up to 150 designs newly acquired by the institute since 2020 from BIPOC designers, including Virgil Abloh, Pharrell Williams, Grace Wales Bonner and Foday Dumbuya.
In a statement, Andrew Bolton noted: “Over the last few years, menswear has undergone somewhat of a renaissance. At the vanguard of this revitalization is a group of extremely talented Black designers who are constantly challenging normative categories of identity. While their styles are both singular and distinctive, what unites them is a reliance on various tropes that are rooted in the tradition of dandyism, and specifically Black dandyism. It was this observation that led me to research the Black dandy’s origins and, ultimately, to Monica’s pioneering work on the subject. In her role as guest curator, Monica visualizes the history of Black dandyism through a wide range of objects and invites us to explore the figure of the Black dandy as much as an idea as an identity.”
“The contemporary designers that are in the show are there because many of them talk about and use the history that we’re recounting as part of their design philosophies,” Miller told Vogue ahead of the announcement. “It’s been really interesting to see the show notes of Virgil Abloh and Grace Wales Bonner – they’re really well versed in the kinds of issues that we’re talking about in the exhibition, [issues] that are related to race and power, that are related to immigration, slavery, colonies and colonization, empowerment, joy, aesthetics.”
The exhibition will run at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Tisch Galleries until October 26, 2025; interdisciplinary artist Torkwase Dyson will collaborate with curators Andrew Bolton and Monica Miller to develop the conceptual design, while Brooklyn-based artist Tanda Francis, known for creating monumental African heads for both public and personal spaces, will create bespoke mannequin heads for the show. Elsewhere, artist and photographer Iké Udé will serve as Special Consultant to the exhibition and Tyler Mitchell will photograph the catalogue.
What is the Met Gala, exactly?
The Met Gala was established in 1948 by fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert as a fundraiser for the recently launched Costume Institute, but it was not until 1972 that former Vogue editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland transformed the event into a star-studded gala with a glamorous annual theme hosted at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Since becoming chairwoman of the Met Gala in 1995, US Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour hosts the yearly event on the first Monday in May and oversees the benefit committee, decides on the guest list, seating arrangements, and approves celebrity outfits.
Remember these best-ever Met Gala outfits?
The staircase of the Metropolitan Museum has granted us some truly iconic style moments over the years. The ‘naked’ dress is hot right now, but it was Cher who did it first when she showed up to the 1974 Met Gala wearing a jaw-dropping sheer Bob Mackie gown adorned with sequins and feathers. In 2006, Sarah Jessica Parker embraced all things punk as she stepped out clad in a tartan ensemble designed by Alexander McQueen for the Met Gala theme AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion. Supermodels Gisele Bündchen, Naomi Campbell and Amber Valletta have all stunned in Versace over the years, while former Met Gala co-chair Michaela Coel and Kim Kardashian have both left unforgettable impressions in custom Schiaparelli. At their last Met Gala appearance in 2023, Rihanna and A$AP Rocky made a fashionably late entrance in looks by Gucci and Valentino respectively. Needless to say, they stole the show – and we suspect they will this year, too.
What happened at the last Met Gala?
The theme of the 2024 Met Gala was Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, which explored cyclical notions of rebirth and renewal, using nature as a metaphor for the impermanence of fashion and featured a selection of rare objects from the Costume Institute’s permanent collection, including designs by Stella McCartney, Saint Laurent and Alexander McQueen. The 2024 Met Gala co-chairs Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, Bad Bunny and Chris Hemsworth were in attendance, along with Ayo Edebiri and Greta Lee, who both made our best-dressed list in custom Loewe gowns designed by Jonathan Anderson.
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