The 2025 Met Gala theme and its celebrity chairs have been announced. Pharrell Williams, Lewis Hamilton, Colman Domingo, and A$AP Rocky, along with the honourary chair LeBron James, will co-host the fashion's biggest night with Anna Wintour. This year, the theme is “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” which is said to be an expression of Black dandyism. However, the exact dress code has yet to be announced.

After the theme was announced on Wednesday, netizens posted their reactions on X. While some were excited to see the representation of black culture on the Met stairs, others feared that it would lead to cultural appropriation.

Met Gala 2025 theme sparks debate online

Despite the efforts to centre the fashion's biggest night on Black fashion, netizens had mixed reactions towards the theme. An X user wrote, “Wow! I’m impressed! This is amazing! I could see Beyoncé attending this one!” Another commented, “The cultural appropriation will be back in Vogue.”

A netizen remarked, “A great opportunity to involve Black fashion historians, stylists, and innovators as cultural commentators and writers. Don't mess this up.” An angry netizen pointed out, “Black Americans? Who are you talking about? Black people aren't all the same..stop using Black Americans' culture and not representing history properly.”

All about the Met Gala theme

As per Vogue, the “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” theme for the upcoming Costume Institute show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art will use “Black dandy as its subject, examining the importance of clothing and style to the formation of Black identities in the Atlantic diaspora”.  

It will be the first time since 2003’s “Men in Skirts” exhibition that Met will focus exclusively on menswear. Additionally, Andrew Bolton will have a guest curator for the first time - Monica Miller, Professor and Chair of Africana Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University. Vogue revealed that the show is inspired by her 2009 book ‘Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity’. 

For the uninitiated, according to Miller, Black dandyism is “a strategy and a tool to rethink identity, to reimagine the self in a different context. To really push a boundary—especially during the time of enslavement, to really push a boundary on who and what counts as human, even.” Its another definition is “dressing wisely and well.”

“Superfine: Tailoring Black Style" will be open to the public from May 10 to October 26, 2025.

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