LeBron James, A$AP Rocky, and Anna Wintour lead a star-studded committee for fashion’s biggest night
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced Superfine: Tailoring Black Style as the theme of the 2025 Costume Institute exhibition, set to open on May 10 and run through October 26, 2025. This landmark show explores the influence of Black sartorial style from the 18th century to the present, examining how fashion has served as a powerful tool of self-definition, resistance, and cultural storytelling in the Atlantic diaspora.
To mark the occasion, this year’s Met Gala—set for Monday, May 5—will be co-chaired by Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, A$AP Rocky, Pharrell Williams, and Anna Wintour, with LeBron James joining as honorary chair. For the first time in years, a dedicated Host Committee will also be revived, composed of leading figures in art, fashion, film, music, and sports, including André 3000, Simone Biles, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dapper Dan, Angel Reese, Sha’Carri Richardson, Olivier Rousteing, and USHER, among many others.
The event’s dress code, “Tailored for You,” takes direct inspiration from the exhibition, inviting guests to engage with themes of tailoring, suiting, and menswear from a personal and expressive lens. Drawing from Guest Curator Monica L. Miller’s seminal book Slaves to Fashion, the show investigates dandyism not merely as an aesthetic, but as a strategy—how clothing becomes a way of navigating race, class, gender, and power.
Organized into 12 thematic sections—such as “Disguise,” “Freedom,” “Beauty,” and “Cool”—Superfine presents over two centuries of objects, from historic tailoring and 19th-century portraits to contemporary looks by LaQuan Smith, Wales Bonner, Theophilio, and Botter. It features garments once worn by icons like Frederick Douglass and André Leon Talley, and media capturing fashion as an embodied act of identity and defiance.
The exhibition also includes immersive contributions from a range of artists. Torkwase Dyson provides architectural sculptures that structure the visitor’s path. Tanda Francis designed bespoke mannequin heads as monuments to communal memory and diasporic beauty. Tyler Mitchell contributed original photography, while Iké Udé curated a section dedicated to historical and personal expressions of Black dandyism, including tributes to Julius Soubise and contemporary styling.
To complement the main event, The Met will host a wide range of public programs, including panel talks, walking tours, workshops, and a film series in collaboration with Metrograph. A pre-opening conversation at The Apollo’s Victoria Theater and another at The Billie Holiday Theater in Brooklyn will further root the show in the community.
The 2025 Met Gala and Superfine: Tailoring Black Style are made possible through support from Louis Vuitton, Instagram, the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation, Africa Fashion International, and Condé Nast. Chef Kwame Onwuachi will lead culinary programming for the Gala, while artist Cy Gavin will oversee red carpet creative direction.
Ultimately, Superfine reframes Black style as more than fashion—it’s freedom, futurism, and an evolving cultural legacy. With this exhibition, The Costume Institute enters a bold new chapter of storytelling through clothes.
