Unpacking the 2025 Met Gala's theme Superfine: Tailoring Black Style

We chat to fashion writer Julian Randall about why this is a crucial exploration of North American history

The annual Met Gala is a celebration of  the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s (MoMa) spring exhibition. In recent years the event has come under some level of scrutiny, as its celebrity guest list parading around in luxury clothes against the backdrop of growing financial inequality rubs some onlookers the wrong wrong way. Post Covid, the role of celebrity is becoming increasingly scrutinised, so an event that is seen as the epitome of pageantry is always going to be framed as tone deaf in some quarters. Last year's Gala felt particularly dystopian (as next year's likely will) against the backdrop of the U.S. facilitating daily atrocities across the Middle East. At the same time, creative expression is one of the defining things that makes us human and without play and imagination, the wider world can feel unbearable. Aside from the commercialised  "fashion" industry, clothes themselves act as cultural signifiers to humanise communities. This year's theme focusing on Black dandyism exemplifies that notion. Before I knew the word "dandyism" as a child, I was definitely enthralled by the swagger and playfulness Black American men brought to dressing. MTV shows like From a G, To a Gent presented by the Mr. Bentley and Andre 3000's otherworldly knitwear and suit game (culminating in an iconic Gillette advert) spoke to me in ways I couldn't contextualise. On reflection, seeing Black men present themselves differently to the hyper-gangsterism that defined early 2000s imagery, on their own terms, provided me with an example of a fully fledged multi-faceted Black manhood. I can only imagine how affirming Black dandyism is therefore, to Black American men raised in the epicentre of often myopic visual culture. There are perhaps few people better place to provide some insight than Julian Randall. The multi-time Essence and Business of Fashion contributor gives us his thoughts on what this moment means.

Who are you and what do you do? 

I'm Julian Randall, a fashion writer, and Ph.D. Candidate at the Manchester Fashion Institute. My work considers the significance of fashion, aesthetics, and consumption in contemporary life. At the moment, I'm researching what clothes mean to Black men in America.

How would you define dandyism and what differentiates it from normal formalwear?

Formal wear would supply only a piece of the dandy's style repertoire. An essential one, but one nonetheless. The difference is the spirit, the body and bodily comportment that accompanies the clothes and brings them to life. And the Black Dandy has given dandyism its vast meaning, its most potent transformative power. Black dandyism turns elegance and refinement on its head through our innately distinctive (and evolving and abounding) forms of expression. 

Why is dandyism important to broader North American history?

Fashion history is North American History, and there ought to be more intellectual engagement with the subject––even more so when it comes to Black menswear. So, on that front, it’s a matter of documenting these overlooked histories which inform our now. To trace the evolution of Black dandyism is to also shed light on shifts in gender expression and broader cultural attitudes and demonstrations, all of which function rather uniquely in the States. C.P. Gause once said ‘the international face of the United States of America is African American and male.’ It’s stayed with me since I read it two years ago. The Met’s forthcoming exhibition, well-timed and brilliantly based on Monica Miller’s book on Black dandyism, ‘Slaves to Fashion,’ has me unraveling that statement in a new way.  

What is the significance of the Met Gala recognising dandyism?

On a personal note, it’s a joy to see that Black men’s contributions to fashion and dress will be on display in The Met’s Costume Institute. A lot of us grew up seeing forms of dandyism in rose-tinted family photographs, or have embraced it in our own style. It’s inseparable from our lives. For a museum of its standing to mount this powerful sartorial lineage within curatorial history, and magnify it with the Met Gala, is a big deal. 

Article by Martyn Ewoma

Read more from Julian Randall here