Zendaya attends the 2025 Met Gala in a three-piece ivory ‘zoot suit’ in the stule of those popular in Harlem dancehalls of the 1920s and 30s. Photograph: John Shearer/WireImageView image in fullscreenZendaya attends the 2025 Met Gala in a three-piece ivory ‘zoot suit’ in the stule of those popular in Harlem dancehalls of the 1920s and 30s. Photograph: John Shearer/WireImageMet Gala 2025Glamour trumps politics as ‘black style’ honoured at Met Gala Kamala Harris snuck in back door leaving fashion icons at forefront as New York’s party of the year ran with the theme ‘Superfine: Tailoring Black Style’Jess Cartner-MorleyTue 6 May 2025 13.05 BSTLast modified on Tue 6 May 2025 14.52 BSTShareThe party of the year had the potential to be a political firecracker. New York’s ultimate see-and-be-seen event, the Met Gala, was also the launch of Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, a fashion exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum honouring the subversive power of black style and the role of dandyism in expanding ideals of masculinity. In other words, the A-list were showing up to raise a toast to diversity under the watchful eye of an administration bent on reversing it.Met Gala 2025 red carpet: pinstripes, capes and pouring rain – in picturesRead moreOn the night, the resistance came to party, not to protest. Glamour was the guest of honour, with politics very much the plus-one. The tempered tone of the night was typified by Kamala Harris, the most high-profile political guest, slipping in a side entrance to avoid the photographers. The night was a joyful and thoughtful celebration of black heritage and creativity, but it was not a forthright statement about politics in 2025.2:00Black style, a gospel choir and pregnancy announcement: stars stun at Met Gala 2025 – video Diana Ross wore a feathered ivory gown with the names of all her children and grandchildren embroidered on to an 18ft train, which took up most of the museum steps. Andre 3000 wore a grand piano on his back. Rihanna announced her third pregnancy in pinstripe bump and matching bustle. Hailey Bieber accessorised her Saint Laurent tuxedo with a martini, and no trousers. But the night did not reach the controversial heights of Kim Kardashian in Marilyn Monroe’s dress, or Rihanna as the pope – let alone the boldness of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 2021 “Tax The Rich” dress.Homages to André Leon Talley, Josephine Baker and Dapper Dan were recurring themes. It was the death two years ago of Talley, fashion editor of American Vogue and iconic black dandy, which first sparked the idea for this exhibition in curator Andrew Bolton. Talley “radiated joy”, Anna Wintour wrote in a recent tribute. Talley’s fingerprints were all over the red carpet, in Colman Domingo’s electric blue cape, a nod to Talley’s 2011 Met Gala look, and in singer Doechii staging a pre-gala photo op swinging one of his trademark accessories, a Louis Vuitton tennis racket cover.View image in fullscreenDiana Ross with an 18ft train. Photograph: Michael Loccisano/GA/The Hollywood Reporter/Getty ImagesThe fashion headline of the night was a revival of the sophisticated glamour of 1920s and 1930s Harlem. Singer FKA twigs wore a scalloped and feather trimmed Baker-esque cocktail dress with a chiffon stole, made for her by the black British designer Grace Wales Bonner. Zendaya wore an immaculate three-piece ivory “zoot suit”, the ultra-fitted silhouette popular in Harlem dancehalls in that era, which recalled the flamboyant tailoring of queer blues singer Gladys Bentley.View image in fullscreenFKA twigs wears a cocktail dress made for her by black British designer Grace Wales Bonner. Photograph: Matt Baron/REX/ShutterstockView image in fullscreenDapper Dan in black and white tailoring. Photograph: Michael Buckner/Penske Media/Getty ImagesDapper Dan, iconic 80-year-old tailor and godfather to hip-hop fashion, told red carpet reporters that his jazzy black-and-white tailoring, with matching two-tone hat and shoes “personifies the Harlem Renaissance”. Jazz-age fashions, which have been percolating on the moodboards of New York creatives since the Met’s 2024 show The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism, looks to be the most influential fashion direction to emerge from the gala.skip past newsletter promotionSign up to Fashion StatementFree weekly newsletterStyle, with substance: what's really trending this week, a roundup of the best fashion journalism and your wardrobe dilemmas solvedEnter your email address Sign upPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionView image in fullscreenDua Lipa with a kiss curl. Photograph: Savion Washington/Getty ImagesMost striking among the Harlem Renaissance tributes was the return of the kiss curl. The slick, lacquered single loop of hair popularised by Baker a century ago was worn on the red carpet by celebrities from across the board: singer Dua Lipa, actor Sydney Sweeney, gymnast Simone Biles, basketball player Angel Reese and rapper Bad Bunny.View image in fullscreenGigi Hadid in a gold Miu Miu dress. Photograph: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty ImagesFor white guests, there were anxieties around how best to honour black culture without risking accusations of appropriation. Gigi Hadid wore a gold Miu Miu dress that paid tribute to the work of black designer Zelda Wynn Valdes, who made gowns for Ella Fitzgerald and created the original Playboy Bunny waitress costume. Kendall Jenner wore a grey tailored two-piece, with a wrapped waist tied at the back in a style inspired by Nigerian tailoring traditions, which designer Torisheju Dumi said expressed “the versatility of black dandyism and what it means to a black British woman.”The interpretations of the dress code, “Tailored for You”, was a reminder of how fluid men’s and women’s fashion has become. Men wore capes and skirts and brooches; women wore trousersuits and waistcoats. Walton Goggins, riding the crest of White Lotus mania, twirled for the cameras in his deconstructed Thom Browne coat and matching flared skirt. Zendaya’s three-piece trousersuit was made for her by Pharrell Williams, who designs menswear, not womenswear, for Louis Vuitton.View image in fullscreenWalton Goggins in Thom Browne. Photograph: Evan Agostini/Invision/APExplore more on these topicsMet Gala 2025Met GalaBlack US cultureNew YorknewsShareReuse this content
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