BY: Walker
Published 4 weeks ago
The theme of the next Met Gala and its celebrity chairs have been announced: Pharrell Williams, Lewis Hamilton, Colman Domingo, A$AP Rocky and LeBron James will help the museum launch an exhibit examining Black style in menswear over the centuries.
The chairs will help the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York launch “Superfine,” a new exhibit about the legacy and influence of the Black dandy, set to run May 10 through Oct. 26, 2025.
The chairs will also serve as the celebrity hosts for the 2025 Met Gala, which is scheduled for May 5. A specific dress code and theme for the event be announced early next year. “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” is the first Met fashion exhibit in over 20 years to focus on menswear, per The Associated Press.
The theme was inspired by guest curator Monica L. Miller’s 2009 book, Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity. Per a description on the Met website it will offer “a cultural and historical examination of the Black dandy, from the figure’s emergence in Enlightenment Europe during the 18th century to today’s incarnations in cities around the world.”
Speaking at an event yesterday to announce this year’s theme, Williams said, “We are the survivors of what is perhaps the most intense hardships, trials and tribulations to ever bedevil a group of human beings, and not only did we survive, we carried the music, the culture, the beauty and the universal language across an ocean… We gave it all back to the world and we continue to and that is what the Met Gala will celebrate — us, our gift, our history, our food, our resilience, our beauty, our style and our strength, our authorship.”
Hamilton was also present and spoke about how fashion and style helped him break through after years of conforming, especially as “the only Black kid on the racing track.” He continued, “I started to express myself more creatively and more specifically, through fashion.
Finding my identity in how I dressed. This was a huge positive change.” The 2024 Met Gala was co-chaired by Bunny, Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, and Chris Hemsworth, and featured a performance from Ariana Grande. It centered around the “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” exhibit, while the Gala featured the theme, “The Garden of Time.”
via: Rolling Stone