Met Gala 2025 theme celebrating black men's style throughout history sparks online debate: 'Don't mess this up' | Fashion trends

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

After the issue was announced on Wednesday, netizens posted their reactions to

The theme of the 2025 Met Gala is sparking an online debate

Despite efforts to focus fashion's biggest night on black fashion, netizens reacted differently to the issue. One X user wrote: “Wow! I am impressed! This is amazing! I could imagine Beyoncé being there!” Another commented: “Cultural appropriation will be back in style.”

One netizen remarked: “A great opportunity to include black fashion historians, stylists and innovators as cultural commentators and writers. “Don't screw this up.” One angry netizen pointed out: “Black Americans? Who are you talking about? Black people are not all the same. Stop exploiting Black American culture and misrepresenting history.”

Everything about the Met Gala

According to Vogue, the theme for the upcoming Costume Institute show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” will be “Black Dandy,” exploring the importance of clothing and style in the formation of Black identities in the Atlantic Diaspora.”

It's the first time since the Men in Skirts exhibition in 2003 that the Met has focused exclusively on men's fashion. 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 was inspired by her 2009 book “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity.”

For the uninitiated, Black Dandyism is, according to Miller, “a strategy and tool for rethinking identity and reimagining the self in a different context.” To truly push a boundary – especially in the time of enslavement, even to push a boundary beyond it, who and what counts as a human being.” Another definition is “dressing smartly and well.”

“Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” is open to the public from May 10 to October 26, 2025.