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, we reveal everything you need to know about the Met Gala 2025, from the theme and A-list co-chairs to the exhibition itself!

What is the 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 tributes to the show’s key topics.

Who are the 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. 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 and Janelle Monáe.

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 showcase 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 Wale Bonner and Foday Dumbuya.

Over the last few years, menswear has undergone somewhat of a renaissance, and the pioneers of this revitalization are 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 of Andrew Bolton’s (the Costume Institute’s Curator in Charge) that led him to research the Black dandy’s origins.

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.

Remember these forever favourite 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.

When is the Met Gala?

It’s always the first Monday of May, this year that’s May 5, 2025.