The 2025 Met Gala took place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on Monday 5 May, marking the opening of the Costume Institute exhibition Superfine: Tailoring Black Style. With a dress code of “Tailored for You,” the red carpet was built around suits, tailcoats and tailored coats, according to coverage from CBC, Numéro and 10 Magazine published that night and the following day.
The co-chairs
Colman Domingo wore Valentino: CBC reported a pleated blue cape made by the house, worn over a Valentino suit, and Numéro noted Boucheron jewelry. Lewis Hamilton wore Wales Bonner, the label of the London designer Grace Wales Bonner, who sat on the gala's host committee. CBC described Hamilton's look as a cream suit worn with Manolo Blahnik shoes, while 10 Magazine called it an all-white tuxedo with tails, finished with a beret.
Pharrell Williams, men's creative director at Louis Vuitton, wore a Louis Vuitton tailored look decorated with pearls. A$AP Rocky wore a black suit from his own label, AWGE, which 10 Magazine described as baggy in cut. Anna Wintour, the fifth co-chair, presided over the evening, a role she first took on in 1995.
Other tailoring on the night
- Damson Idris wore a red tuxedo by Tommy Hilfiger (CBC).
- Burna Boy wore a single-breasted red suit with a sherbet-yellow shirt and a textured leather overcoat by Ozwald Boateng (10 Magazine).
- Omar Apollo wore a loose black Wales Bonner suit with white accents, a floral brooch and a leopard-print shirt (10 Magazine).
- Barry Keoghan wore a Valentino suit with a crimson sash (10 Magazine).
- Christian Latchman wore a white suit with a train by Taylor Thompson, with an oversized boutonniere (CBC).
- Bad Bunny wore a cropped olive Prada blazer with crystal-embellished leather gloves (10 Magazine).
- Leon Bridges wore tailoring by the London designer Nicholas Daley (10 Magazine).
- Tessa Thompson wore a tailored coat dress by Prabal Gurung with a small black top hat (CBC).
- Zendaya wore a white Louis Vuitton suit (Numéro).
- Rihanna wore a Marc Jacobs cropped jacket, bodysuit and wool skirt, with a hat by Stephen Jones (Numéro).
Wales Bonner dressed several guests beyond Hamilton, including Omar Apollo and Jeff Goldblum, according to 10 Magazine. Louis Vuitton dressed Doechii in a checked look designed by Williams, CBC reported, along with Sabrina Carpenter and Pusha T.
What it means for tailoring
The Met described Superfine as the Costume Institute's first exhibition devoted to menswear in more than 20 years, and the red carpet reflected that. Most of the looks reported kept the basic architecture of a tailored jacket and trousers and changed the color, length or decoration: pearls on Williams's look, a cape over Domingo's suit, a train on Latchman's.
For anyone ordering formalwear, that is the practical point. A well-cut jacket can carry a great deal of variation in fabric, color and trimming while still reading as tailoring. Most private events still ask for something closer to standard black tie, but the gala showed how far a double-breasted jacket, a cream dinner suit or a long coat can be pushed before the result stops reading as a suit.
What happens next
The exhibition opened to the public on 10 May 2025 and was scheduled to run until 26 October 2025 in the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Exhibition Hall at The Met Fifth Avenue.
