Image via Dawn Images
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The annual Met Gala is taking place on Monday, May 5 2025, and the expectations are high. Known as fashion’s biggest night out, the Met Gala serves as a fundraising benefit for the New York-based Metropolitan Museum of Art’s iconic Costume Institute. This year, the Gala is also a ceremonial opening for the Met’s 2025 spring fashion exhibition.
Curated by the Met’s Costume Institute, the exhibition is a love letter to the rich history of fashion. Celebrities, influencers, and New York elite each vie for a coveted invite from co-chair Anna Wintour. As the editor-in-chief of Vogue and the Met Gala’s longtime trustee, Wintour’s marketing designates the Met Gala as an exclusive event dedicated to thematic ensembles of high-end fashion—all in the name of philanthropy, of course.
On the surface, the Met Gala is a night for elite members of pop culture to rub elbows and business cards, yet its status as a cultural phenomenon is undeniable. Reflecting the prior year’s political baggage, such as 2024’s tumultuous election cycle and a new era of political polarization, the 2025 Met Gala doesn’t exist without context.
This year’s theme was recently confirmed to be “Tailored for You,” derived from the museum’s upcoming exhibit, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” Inspired by curator Monica L. Miller’s 2009 book “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity,” the theme aims to embody the essence of Black dandyism. But what exactly is Black dandyism?
Interactions between African American slaves and the lavish fashion choices of Europe’s eighteenth-century upper class inspired the creation of Black dandyism, denoting the aesthetic as defiant. For its European participants, dandyism implied an intentional manner of dress that communicated the wearer’s intelligence, further contextualized by the Enlightenment thinking of post-revolutionary France. The aesthetic proceeded to cross cultural boundaries via the North Atlantic slave trade and function as a tool for social mobility, resistance, and self-expression in the face of the harsh slave labor system. After the abolition of slavery in America, facets of Black dandyism persisted throughout the twentieth century via the Harlem Renaissance and the ever-controversial film genre of blaxploitation.
Black dandyism is indicative of a much larger truth: politics and fashion are intertwined. The choices we make regarding what we wear signal the status quo and how we as individuals exist in regard to the dominant culture; in other words, fashion reflects the political and cultural phenomena of the eras it dominates. Wendy Yu of the Met’s Costume Institute notes that fashion expresses “patriotic, nationalistic, and propagandistic tendencies as well as complex issues related to class, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality.”
Fashion’s inherent connection to politics is clearly highlighted in the upcoming Gala. It is undeniable that this past year, riddled with political polarization and a chaotic election cycle, has provided ample material for fashion to comment on. In light of President Trump’s 2024 election victory, it is evident that the U.S. is undergoing a conservative shift, marked by significant changes such as Trump’s vehement opposition to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. As of January 20, DEI was rendered void, rescinding Affirmative Action and diversity initiatives previously aimed at equalizing work environments. Taking away DEI sends a message to the American people: progressivism and its influences are dwindling.
But even as the U.S. continues its gradual descent away from progressivism, fashion continues to serve as a tool of power, resistance, and protest. In times of political turmoil, fashion fuels counterculture and provides a theoretical framework for the individual to interpret, engaging them with the culture in a way that lays the grounds for progress. Look to the anti-Vietnam War protesters of the 1960s, who promoted second-hand sustainability whilst calling upon the U.S. government to cease their devastating proxy war in Vietnam, as an example. Similarly, the Black Panther Party fostered solidarity amongst members in the following decade by sporting black berets and leather jackets, paving the way for Black liberation. The Met is preserving this theme of resistance with the intentional choice to amplify Black creators, culture, and history at one of the most prestigious nights in Western fashion. Prospective Gala pieces, such as velvet liveries symbolic of African currency and suits displayed alongside the work of W.E.B. DuBois, are active representations of the intangible relationship between fashion and political resistance.
When asked in a New York Times interview about the potential controversy in prioritizing Black fashion, Miller stated, “This is what in Black studies we call ‘hard histories’.” At the risk of making people uncomfortable, the Met’s choice to take on the theme of Black dandyism acknowledges the “hard” history America is undergoing right now. In times of uncertainty and fear, or in moments where the status quo disservices the people, fashion is a tool to cultivate the very cornerstone of progress—community. It was true during Vietnam, it was true during the Civil Rights Movement, and it will ring true for the next four years.
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This article was edited by Graham Thoresen and Emily Sauget.
Sarah Olivia Sullivan 
Nathan Wellman