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On the arms of her co-chairs Lewis Hamilton and Oscar-winner Colman Domingo, Anna Wintour has arrived at the event she has shaped into fashion’s biggest night.
Met Gala chair Anna Wintour with Colman Domingo and Lewis Hamilton on the blue carpet.Credit: FilmMagic
F1 championship driver Hamilton wore a white custom Louis Vuitton suit with a cropped jacket and beret. Louis Vuitton is the major sponsor of the Met Gala, which raises money for New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Oscar-winner Domingo appears to be paying tribute to the late fashion editor Andre Leon Talley in a Valentino cape and jewellery from Boucheron. The cape, a few shades darker than cerulean blue, is similar to one worn by Talley to the Met Gala in 2011.
Met Gala co-chair Colman Domingo leaving the Carlyle Hotel for the Met Gala and the late fashion editor Andre Leon Talley at the Met Gala in 2011.Credit: AP, Getty Images
Vogue editor Wintour wore an ivory Louis Vuitton dress with a powder blue coat. No sunglasses.
Teyana Taylor.Credit: FilmMagic
American singer, dancer and actor Teyana Taylor is setting an early example of how to dress on theme.
Appearing regal in a deep red cape, three-piece suit, feathered cap and durag, Taylor wears a custom Marc Jacobs look produced in collaboration with American costume designer Ruth E. Carter.
The award-winning costume designer is best known for her work with black filmmakers Spike Lee, Ryan Coogler and John Singleton.
The train of her velveteen cape is embroidered with the phrase “Harlem Rose” (seemingly a nod to her song Rose in Harlem), and “A rose out of the concrete”, a clear homage to TuPac Shakur’s The Rose That Grew From Concrete, a poem about greatness growing from a place not typically recognised as such.
US Vogue editor Anna Wintour, ruler of the Met Gala since 1999, has another seat to fill at this year’s event as co-chair LeBron James decided to stay home.
The NBA star called in sick, claiming that an injury from the most recent season will stop him from suiting up.
Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James appears during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Utah Jazz in February.Credit: AP
“Unfortunately because of my knee injury I sustained at the end of the season I won’t be able to attend the Met Gala in NY tonight as so many people have been asking and congratulating me on! Hate to miss an historical event!” James wrote on X before the event.
James was selected as one of this year’s co-chairs alongside F1 Champion Lewis Hamilton, Oscar-winner Colman Domingo, Louis Vuitton menswear creative director Pharrell Williams and A$AP Rocky.
Supermodel Naomi Campbell is a surprise last-minute cancellation from this year’s Met Gala.
As a champion of black people in the fashion industry, Campbell was expected to dominate the event dedicated to Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, but has RSVP’d no in a post shared on her Instagram account.
This is us right now.Credit: AP
“Congratulations to Anna Wintour, the brilliant designers, the dedicated Met Gala team, and stunning attendees of tonight’s extraordinary celebration,” Campbell wrote. “I have to say, what perfect timing for the ‘Superfine: Tailoring Black Style’ theme. It really celebrates how Black dandyism has shaped fashion and how fashion has been a way for Black people to express who they are and claim their power.”
“Even though I’m not there in person, I’m with you all in spirit, carried by the legacy of my beloved friend, the late Andre Leon Talley. His commanding presence, vision and belief that fashion is art helped shape what the Met Gala is presenting tonight. I can’t wait to see how everyone mixes African and European style traditions on those famous steps tonight! The creativity will be amazing. “With all my love and admiration—Naomi Campbell.”
Expect wide lapels, creased trousers and more Windsor knot ties than a royal wedding with this year’s dress code, Tailored for You.
The gala coincides with the launch of the exhibition Superfine: Tailoring Black Style at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “a profoundly scholarly show centring [on] an important legacy of black-led sartorial innovation and creative expression that continues to inspire and shape our world today”, according to the Met’s chief executive, Max Hollein.
André Leon TalleyCredit: Getty
The Met exhibition was inspired by Monica L. Miller’s 2009 book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity.
Emerging in the 18th century as a way for slave owners to express wealth by dressing slaves in finery, black dandyism continued in the 19th and 20th century. Following the abolition of slavery, clothing became a way to assert identity, with the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s becoming a playground of exaggerated suiting that offered dignity while toying with the idea of respectability.
In more recent years the black dandy was personified for Vogue editor Anna Wintour by the late fashion editor Andre Leon Talley.
“André was a dandy among dandies and he radiated joy,” Wintour writes in Vogue’s May issue. “André never had an ounce of shame. I’ll be thinking of him on the night of the Met Gala, an evening made for him—and one I can scarcely believe he will miss.“
”I thought of how even when he was doing something one might have found slightly over the top—playing tennis in full Vuitton, for instance—it was, for André, an act of supreme confidence, of total self-possession.”
Here are the top 10 looks from the Met Gala red carpet in 2024, when the theme was The Garden of Time. We’ve taken out the fashion weeds:
The one event of the year when US Vogue editor Anna Wintour is guaranteed to attempt a warm smile is upon us, as the red carpet rolls out for the 2025 Met Gala in New York.
Held on the first Monday of May, the gala launches an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, fuels scandals such as Kim Kardashian in Marilyn Monroe’s dress in 2022 and solidifies the fashion reputations of celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Blake Lively.
Taking you through the red carpet will be fashion editor Damien Woolnough and lifestyle writer Lauren Ironmonger as we sift through the best looks from fashion’s biggest night.
They’ll be joined by culture and lifestyle reporter Nell Geraets who’ll be on the lookout for any surprise guests – and of course celebrity drama! Will Kanye West be a gatecrasher?
