The 2025 Met Gala Explained: Everything We Know About the Theme, Dress Code, and Guests

With the Met Gala just weeks away, anticipation has been building around this year’s theme and dress code. The dress code, “Tailored for You,” ties into the themes of the Costume Institute’s new exhibition,“Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.”

Influenced by Monica L. Miller’s 2009 book, Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, the exhibition will “explore the role of sartorial style in forming Black identities, focusing on the emergence, significance, and proliferation of the Black dandy,” per Vogue.

“Dandyism can seem frivolous, but it often poses a challenge to or a transcendence of social and cultural hierarchies,” Miller said. “It asks questions about identity, representation, and mobility in relation to race, class, gender, sexuality, and power. This exhibition explores dandyism as both a pronouncement and a provocation.”

Compared to last year’s “Garden of Time” theme, which brought many colorful, ethereal looks that incorporated floral and earthy details, this year’s dress code is setting the tone for more stark, structured suiting looks.

Here’s all we know about the prestigious fashion event.

Following its long-standing tradition, the Met Gala will take place on the first Monday in May—this year, that falls on May 5. The event will be held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the Costume Institute’s annual spring exhibition will run from May 10 through October 26. Red carpet coverage typically begins around 6 P.M. ET, when celebrity attendees start to make their grand entrances.

This year’s dress code, “Tailored for You,” is a reflection of the exhibition’s emphasis on menswear and suiting. According to Vogue, the dress code is “purposefully designed to provide guidance and invite creative interpretation.”

The red carpet could feature celebrities’ bold takes on classic suiting from different decades, including the sharp, exaggerated zoot suits of the 1940s to the vibrant, statement styles of the ’60s and ’70s. Beyond the clothing, attendees may also choose to incorporate accessories such as top hats, overcoats, suspenders, and ties.

This year’s Met Gala marks the first time the Costume Institute’s exhibit has been solely centered around menswear since 2003’s “Men in Skirts.” The theme reflects the institute’s broader dedication to diversity. “I feel that the show itself marks a really important step in our commitment to diversifying our exhibitions and collections, as well as redressing some of the historical biases within our curatorial practice,” head curator Andrew Bolton said. “It’s very much about making fashion at The Met more of a gateway to access and inclusivity.”

The exhibition will be divided into 12 sections, each highlighting a specific element of Black dandyism, including Ownership, Cool, Distinction, Disguise, Freedom, Jook, Respectability, Champion, Heritage, Beauty, Cosmopolitanism, and Presence.

This year’s co-chairs bring a diverse mix of fashion, music, and sports to the event. They are actor Colman Domingo, Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton, rapper A$AP Rocky, and musician/fashion designer Pharrell Williams. NBA legend LeBron James will serve as an honorary chair.

The co-chairs are taking the theme seriously with Domingo revealing he connected with Miller to explore references for his look in his May 2025 Vogue cover story. He was touched when he saw Black mannequins being styled. “I am a Black man who loves style, loves tailoring, and it struck me that I had never seen images like that—of myself, saying, I belong in these clothes,” he said.

Hamilton called this year’s exhibit “so important,” reflecting on the lack of representation he experienced growing up outside London. “There were no museums near me, there wasn’t much diversity, and there certainly wasn’t any exposure to fashion,” he revealed in his Vogue cover profile.

He also addressed the added pressure Black men often face, saying, “Black men have always had to be more excellent than our white counterparts. I’ve seen that with my father and with me—we needed to be overachievers. That’s why this theme is just so important to me.”

For his red carpet look, Hamilton and his stylist, Eric McNeal, are taking a thoughtful approach: “I hope everyone else attending is compelled to really research and think deeply about what they’re wearing.”

Williams, who is known as a fashion trendsetter and was a previous Met Gala co-chair in 2017, described dandyism as “a set of rules and standards that reflect a certain sophistication and well-traveled taste.”

For him, the night is about more than fashion. “I want it to feel like the most epic night of power, a reflection of Black resiliency in a world that continues to be colonized,” Williams said.

Rocky, who shot his Vogue cover in Harlem, reflected on what the exhibit means to him personally. “I’m looking forward to seeing everybody celebrate Black excellence,” he said, calling the exhibit “genuine…and very, very, very…important.”

Rocky also said that his Harlem roots shaped his bold, fashion-forward aesthetic long before the term “modern dandy” entered the conversation: “That’s regular for us, bro,” he said. “I’m from Harlem—we showed y’all how to do this.”

This year’s Met Gala host committee features influential figures across the fashion, entertainment, music, and sports industries. They include André 3000, Doechii, Ayo Edebiri, Janelle Monáe, Tyla, Simone Biles and Jonathan Owens, Olivier Rousteing, Usher, Grace Wales Bonner, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Jordan Casteel, Dapper Dan, Edward Enninful, Jeremy O. Harris, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Rashid Johnson, Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee, Audra McDonald, Jeremy Pope, Angel Reese, Sha’Carri Richardson, and Kara Walker.

The official guest list is usually not revealed until the night of the event. Given Rocky’s status as a co-chair this year, Rihanna will likely return to the Met Gala after missing it last year. The other co-chairs and members of the host committee are also expected to attend.

The Met Gala is known to be one of fashion’s most exclusive events, and it’s by invitation only. Individual tickets have cost $75,000 in the past, an unsurprising figure given it is a Costume Institute fundraising event.