Where Dandyism Dared: A Fashion Round-Up of the Met Gala 2025’s Most Daring Moments

“Black style doesn’t follow trends, it creates them. It doesn’t just resist, it reimagines.”

The 2025 Met Gala was more than a red carpet. It was a cultural reckoning wrapped in silk lapels and sculpted silhouettes. With this year’s theme, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art  finally handed the mic and the mirror to Black style in all its defiant, refined glory.

Superfine: Tailoring Black Style – The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Image Source: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/

This wasn’t just about suiting up. It was about reclaiming elegance, rewriting identity, and letting heritage walk the carpet.

At the heart of it all were the co-chairs: A$AP Rocky, Colman Domingo, Pharrell Williams, Lewis Hamilton, and honorary chair LeBron James — each a style disruptor and curator of selfhood.

Top (Left To Right): ASAP Rocky In His Own Custom  AWGE, Colman Domingo Wearing A Zoot Suit-Inspired Valentino Look, & Pharrell Williams In Louis Vuitton; (Bottom): Lewis Hamilton In Wales Bonner; Image Source: Vogue

Fashion historian Shelby Ivey Christie put it best:

“Black dandyism is the art of reclamation, transforming what was never intended for you into a declaration of identity, elegance, and defiance. It’s grace forged through struggle, and the quiet triumph of being seen on your own terms.”

And that is the soul of this year’s theme. Born from a history where enslaved Africans were stripped of language, identity, and even clothing, Black dandyism emerged as a radical counter of elegance and self-definition.

As Monica L. Miller wrote in Slaves to Fashion:

“They arrived physically and metaphorically naked, a seeming tabula rasa on which European and new American fashions might be imposed.” But over centuries, tailoring became a form of resistance. Clothing became language. A weapon. A shield. A performance of worth in a world that tried to erase it.

We see its evolution in the dapper rebellion of the Harlem Renaissance. In the wide-legged flair of zoot suits worn during the Jim Crow era. In the joyous pageantry of the Sapeurs of Congo, who turned colonial tailoring into exuberant protest. And in the sharp, clean-lined mastery of London’s Ozwald Boateng, whose technicolor Savile Row legacy reframed Black men as icons of precision and presence.

(Left) Les Sapeurs Of Congo; Image Source: Chap UK

Cab Calloway In The “Zoot Suit” From 1943; Image Source: Smithsonian Magazine

Ozwald Boateng OBE Steals The Spotlight At Met Gala 2025 With Memorable looks; Image Source; Esquire Middle East

This year’s exhibition, inspired by Miller’s work, charts 300 years of that journey, across 12 curatorial chapters, from “Heritage” to “Cosmopolitanism.” It reminds us that for the Black diaspora, style has never been just aesthetic. It has always been a declaration.

As someone who’s always gravitated toward dandyism, whether through a perfectly cut jacket, a daring clash of prints, or a well-timed flourish, I found this year’s theme deeply personal. It reminded me of my fashion history professor in London, who arrived to every lecture like he belonged on Savile Row. That kind of elegance, that kind of intentional dressing, stays with you. Not just because it looks good, but because it means something.

Savile Row, London; Image Source: Drapers Online

And this year’s red carpet meant something.

It shimmered with trompe-l’œil illusions, Edwardian drama, sculptural silhouettes, and gender play at its most refined. But these weren’t costumes. They were coded messages, sewn with subtext, sharpness, and storytelling.

Designers like Thom Browne, Marc Jacobs, and Chanel rose to the occasion, dressing the soul of the theme.

Thom Browne was the master of structural drama.
Janelle Monáe stunned in a deconstructed pinstripe jacket transformed into optical illusion couture, equal parts sculpture, satire, and showstopper.
Zoe Saldaña, in minimalist black and white, let Browne’s precision do the storytelling, no embellishments needed.
Mona Patel turned heads in a futuristic ensemble, complete with a robotic dog,  tailoring made cinematic.
Whoopi Goldberg, in a sequined tuxedo-gown hybrid, reminded everyone that consistency is a power move.

Marc Jacobs delivered a trilogy of triumphs.
Rihanna floated in black-on-black roses, redefining maternity and myth, softness with structure, elegance with attitude.
Teyana Taylor, styled by Ruth E. Carter, channeled a blood-red 19th-century dandy with Afrofuturist bite.
Tracee Ellis Ross, in a voluminous pink jumpsuit and wide-brimmed hat, conjured vintage couture with her signature wink.

Meanwhile, Chanel told two stories.
Lupita Nyong’o, in a mint suit and jeweled brows, whispered grace.
Jennie (of BLACKPINK) modernized Coco’s tuxedo codes with pearl cabochons and a top hat, Tiffany’s meets Seoul street.
Dua Lipa, also in Chanel, missed the mark. Impeccably dressed, yet disconnected from the theme’s radical tailoring.

Jennie

And then there were the singular statements — the ones you couldn’t ignore.

Lauryn Hill, in butter-yellow Jude Dontoh, bloomed like a surreal sovereign, Moschino whimsy with ancestral poise.
Doechii, in Pharrell’s Louis Vuitton, gave us dandyism reloaded: short suit, bowtie, bare knees. Irreverent, cheeky and completely in command.
Sarah Snook, in anOnlyChild, was a brocade-laced villainess — Galliano meets Shakespearean duel.
Jodie Turner-Smith, in Burberry by Daniel Lee, brought Mugler echoes to structured tailoring.
Cynthia Erivo, in custom Givenchy by Sarah Burton, was fashion poetry. Part Edith Sitwell, part Westwood, wholly unforgettable.

The modern dandies held their own.

Jeremy O. Harris, theatrical tailoring and jewelry symbolism. Oscar Wilde with a trap beat.
Keith Powers, in BOSS, was a minimalist dream — slick, sharp, and soft-spoken.
Tyler Perry, understated and commanding, wore a beaded coat that shimmered with quiet defiance.

And finally, there were the quiet highlights, those who didn’t need volume to make a statement.

Tessa Thompson, in Carolina Herrera, served equestrian glamour with Victorian flair.
Savannah James, in Hanifa, wore cream tailoring with softness and stature.
Iman Hammam, in white suiting and a feathered hat, gave us Josephine Baker reimagined.
Anok Yai, in black sequins, was a goddess in motion. Old Hollywood resurrected with new power.

And of course, Whoopi Goldberg. Walking like she invented the Met Gala. Her presence didn’t need explanation. That’s what legacy looks like.

Whoopi Goldberg In Thom Browne; Image Source: Getty Images

Together, these looks weren’t just on-theme. They were the theme.

You saw Galliano’s drama, Chanel’s restraint, Thom Browne’s tailoring games, and the Sapeurs’ unapologetic joy. A generation unafraid to dress like they mean it.

Because that’s the point of dandyism. Not to blend in, but to declare your place: tailored, jeweled, and ready.

No one expressed it better than Colman Domingo, who said on the carpet:

“It’s one of the thumbs of Black men that tell me routinely that I put that shit on.”

Then he named the legends: André Leon Talley, Bayard Rustin, Dapper Dan, Ozwald Boateng, Sidney Poitier, Prince, Harry Belafonte, James Baldwin.

And echoed George C. Wolfe that belongs in every fashion textbook:

“God created Black people, and Black people created style.”

Tailoring Black style teaches us that clothing is never just clothing. When worn with intention, fashion becomes protest. Poetry. Power.
A way to say:

I exist. Loudly. Beautifully. Unapologetically.
In a world that too often tries to look away.

The 2025 Met Gala was a masterclass in presence.
A reminder that true style doesn’t perform.
It proclaims.