Celebrities flooded the Metropolitan Museum of Art on a rainy Monday in New York City to highlight Black fashion and kick off the first Met Gala in more than 20 years with a menswear theme.
The gala, a fundraiser for the Met’s Costume Institute, has traditionally been held on the first Monday of May, with looks inspired by its annual spring fashion exhibition, which this year is “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.”
Colman Domingo, one of the evening’s hosts, showed up in a pleated, gold-adorned blue cape, which he removed to reveal a black and white suit. His look evoked the late Andre Leon Talley, the fashion icon who made history as a rare Black editor at Vogue.
Domingo arrived with Vogue’s Anna Wintour, the mastermind of the gala, dressed in baby blue.
In addition to those two, the co-chairs of the event are Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton and musicians A$AP Rocky and Pharrell Williams.
“I want it to feel like the most epic night of power” — Williams, who is also the Louis Vuitton menswear director, told Vogue recently — “a reflection of Black resiliency in a world that continues to be colonized, by which I mean policies and legislation that are nothing short of that.”
The red carpet for fashion’s biggest night kicked off at 6 p.m. ET, with a choir of tuxedo-dressed men treating the first guests to a rendition of Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell.
As of 7:30 p.m., a slew of stars had already brought their sequined, collared, glittery and, yes, tailored, selves up the museum’s iconic staircase, including Zendaya in a sharp white suit and matching hat, Sabrina Carpenter in a maroon bodysuit-jacket with tails that extended into a train, and Megan Thee Stallion in a glittery dress and enormous fluffy coat.
Diana Ross shut down the carpet with a massive white train embroidered with the names of her children and grandchildren, in her first Met Gala appearance in 20 years.
She told Vogue that it was a “really, really last moment” decision to come, but that her son Evan, who attended with her, had convinced her to come.
The official dress code for gala guests is “Tailored for You,” inspired by Black dandyism.
It’s “a nod to the exhibition’s focus on suiting and menswear, from specific silhouettes to various fabrics and accessories — that is purposefully designed to both provide guidance and invite creative interpretation,” according to a press release.
NBA superstar LeBron James was slated to attend the event for the first time after being announced as honorary co-chair, but said Monday he would have to bow out due to the sprained knee he suffered in the Lakers’ season-ending Game 5 loss to the Timberwolves.
The gala raises the bulk of the curation budget for the museum’s Costume Institute. But the glitzy event, with its emphasis on high-end fashion and big-budget stars, has faced criticisms for decades that it is a parade of wealth that draws attention from other issues.
On Monday, pro-Palestinian protesters massed on the streets near the Met Gala, waving flags and chanting “Free Palestine.”
The theme of the gala is inspired by the annual spring exhibition, which this year is based in large part on Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, a book written by Columbia University professor Monica L. Miller which looks at the political coding of style within the Black community.
She is guest curator of the exhibit, which opens to the public on Saturday.
“Historical manifestations of dandyism range from absolute precision in dress and tailoring to flamboyance and fabulousness in dress and style,” Miller writes in the exhibit catalog. “Whether a dandy is subtle or spectacular, we recognize and respect the deliberateness of the dress, the self-conscious display, the reach for tailored perfection, and the sometimes subversive self-expression.”
It’s the first Costume Institute exhibition since 2003’s “Men in Skirts” to focus exclusively on menswear.
This year’s exhibit draws on other sources beyond Miller’s book. It’s organized into 12 sections, each symbolizing a characteristic of dandy style as defined by Zora Neale Hurston in her 1934 essay, “Characteristics of Negro Expression,” including presence, distinction, disguise, freedom and heritage, among others.
Organizers also resurrected the tradition of a “host committee” this year, made up of stars in a wide range of fields: athletes Simone Biles and husband Jonathan Owens; Angel Reese and Sha’Carri Richardson; filmmakers Spike Lee, Tonya Lewis Lee and Regina King; actors Ayo Edebiri, Audra McDonald and Jeremy Pope; musicians Doechii, Usher, Tyla, Janelle Monae and Andre 3000; author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; artists Jordan Casteel, Rashid Johnson and Kara Walker; playwrights Jeremy O. Harris and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins; and fashion figures Grace Wales Bonner, Edward Enninful, Dapper Dan and Olivier Rousteing.
The guest list amounts to about 450 high-profile people from technology, sports, art, entertainment and more. The mix, Williams said, is a must.
“It’s so important to me to have successful Black and brown people of every stripe in the room: not just athletes and actors and actresses, entertainers, but also authors, architects, folks from the fintech world,” he told Vogue. “We’ve got to invest in each other.”
Hamilton, who arrived Monday in an ivory suit and matching beret, told Vogue that, for him, tonight is a continuation of the 2021 Met Gala, when he bought a table specifically for up-and-coming Black designers.
“Fashion’s really helped me become the person I am today,” he said, adding that his outfit, designed by Grace Wales Bonner, took inspiration from the Harlem Renaissance.
The gala had already raised a record $31 million US, Metropolitan Museum of Art CEO Max Hollein said Monday — the first time the fundraiser for the Met’s Costume Institute has crossed the $30 million US mark and eclipsing last year’s haul of more than $26 million US.
