Met Musings Part 1: Fine and Dandy

Fashion's Biggest Night lived up to its name.

Prom planning committee and faculty advisor.

“God created Black people. And Black people created style.”

So declared Met Gala co-chair Colman Domingo while leading the event’s pre-fete press conference on Monday. Domingo referred to the Costume Institute’s new, highly anticipated exhibit: “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” that runs through October 26^th. Guest-curated by Monica L. Miller, author of Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, it offers a sweeping, long-overdue examination of the history and importance of Black fashion, focusing on menswear.

Tossing Shirts can’t comment on the exhibit itself, not having seen it. But reactions have been celebratory. From a cultural standpoint, the masterminds at the Met and Vogue seem to have selected well; the topic appeals broadly, and feels vital to the current moment.

Sigh. Yet another ho-hum maternity dress.

Still, some fete-centric questions swirled in the lead-up to Fashion’s Biggest Night, particularly about how attendees would approach what has in recent years become something of an haute costume party. Would the celebs with a proven track record of dressing on message manage to straddle the fine line between cultural appreciation and cancelable appropriation? Would trepidatious A-listers skew toward the boring-and-blah for fear of offending? Would someone wear LV panties featuring a likeness of Rosa Parks?

While the answer to that last one was, unthinkably, “yes” – Lisa of Blackpink and White Lotus fame – overall, this First Monday in May offered the most exuberant and fabulous Met Gala fashion in recent memory. With the dress code “Tailored for You,” menswear tropes won the night, with plenty of vogues on tuxedo dressing and zoot suits. Chapeaus of various ilks –fedora, top hat, church lady – made frequent appearances. Overall, the vibe was of people with strong personal relationships to clothes reveling in a theme that inspired passion and thought.

“To be honest, I was expecting an elevator.”

The sartorial fun started at the top – co-chairs Domingo, A$AP Rocky and Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton all looked fantastic. Domingo arrived in a sweeping blue Valentino cloak, an apparent tribute to legendary fashionisto André Leon Talley. He then ditched the outerwear to reveal a sharp window-pane plaid suit, also Valentino. A$AP Rocky decked himself out from his own creative label, AWGE. On a night celebrating Black men’s history of personal style, it made sense that one of the marquee hosts wore, he said, a look “custom made for me, by me.” Hamilton opted for a custom ivory Wales Bonner suit.

Power suiting.

The co-chairs happily shared the spotlight. Model and actress Teyana Taylor hit numerous best dressed-lists for her spectacular zoot suit-inspired getup finished with a sweeping crimson cape and top hat. The look, dubbed “Harlem Rose,” was crafted by Academy Award-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter. With a big role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s upcoming One Battle After Another this fall, Taylor, who served one of the co-hosts of Vogue’s livestream for the evening, seems poised for a major breakout this year.

While Taylor went bigger-than-big in the best way, another star showed the value of underplaying one’s hand. Zendaya, who co-chaired last year’s event, showed up in a hyper-chic Bianca Jagger-esque white tuxedo topped off with a floppy, wide-brimmed hat. The gorgeous outfit read as practically minimalist, especially in contrast to the two showstopping John Gallianos she sported in 2024. For Zendaya, who is as renowned for her fashion-flexing as for her film work, it felt like the ultimate power move. She can dominate a red (or blue) carpet, whether in the role of hostess-with-the-mostest-fashion, or playing in a quieter, “I’m just a guest” register.

“After this, I’m running off to play Dancing Waiter #3 in a dinner theater production of Hello, Dolly!”

As it turned out, deceptively simple emerged as a sub-theme amidst the overstatement. Pharrell Williams donned a seemingly understated white, double-breasted jacket – or was it? A closer check revealed the wow factor: It was constructed from 15,000 pearls. And Hunter Schaffer, Zendaya’s Euphoria co-star, worked the theme in an impeccable Prada tux. Her combination of “these are real clothes” and high-glam x-factor made for one of the night’s biggest hits.

Yet there was still a bounty of thrills in terms of the extreme and ostentatious. Janelle Monáe, who has long approached dressing as performance art, went real-deal theatrical, starting with a moving, clock-gear monocle. It accessorized and a severely structured coat-cum-box that fell away to reveal a black, white and red suit, the stunning look a collaboration between Thom Brown and Wicked costume designer Paul Tazewell. Between Tazewell’s derring-do and Carter’s gasp-worthy work for Taylor, this was as big a moment for behind-the-scenes Oscar winners at the Met as it typically is for those who get their shiny gold trophies for their work in front of the camera.

“What do you mean ‘no coat check?’”

Sarah Snook leaned into dramatic dandyism in a black-and-red satin anOnlyChild tuxedo with a sweeping cape. From somewhere, surely, Oscar Wilde smiled at Broadway’s Dorian Gray. Andre Benjamin braved the imposing climb to cocktails with a full-sized piano on his back. Actor Damson Idris revved the carpet in a full racing suit and helmet, a nod to both Hamilton and to his role in the upcoming blockbuster hopeful F1. That performance wear was torn away to reveal a Seventies-fab red suit by Tommy Hilfiger.

“You’ve heard of a pit stop. Well, how about a strip stop?”

And a pair of musical deities rocked Acela-length trains. Making his first-ever Gala appearance, Stevie Wonder wore a black Sergio Hudson number that swept behind him for days. And Diana Ross, who makes the “living legend” years wildly cool and glamorous, worked an otherworldly eruption of white froth designed by Ugo Mozie in collaboration with Ross and her son, Evan. Her 18-foot train was embroidered with the names of her children and grandchildren.

New Amtrak spokesmodel, Diana Ross.

For some guests, the drama was in the details. Case in point: Megan thee Stallion’s coiffure. The rapper eschewed menswear in favor of a sparkling, barely there Michael Kors gown that would have been at home at a non-themed affair. But she wore her hair in an overstated, sculptural ponytail – an homage to a similar style worn by the legendary Josephine Baker. And in one of the most delightful and moving touches of the night, Tessa Thompson finished off her curvy Prabal Gurung coatdress with a church fan emblazoned with a portrait of Talley.

Well-earned fan fare.

The Met Gala can inspire many things, from joy about fashion to a morbid curiosity about just how long an extravagant event that benefits a museum’s clothing wing can persist in our increasingly fraught world. Some years, it inspires exhaustion. Not so this year’s event, beneficiary of a compelling, relevant theme and great-to-look-at fashion. By the time Rihanna, who has long served as the Met red carpet’s unofficial closer, arrived in a fabulous, baby-bump-revealing Marc Jacobs creation, the main takeaway was, “let’s do this again next year.”

This is the first in a two-part series on this week’s Met Gala. For Part II, click below.

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