The museum said on Wednesday that singer and designer Pharrell Williams is one of the co-chairs of the upcoming Met Gala in New York, which will explore racial relations in the context of fashion.
Fashion’s biggest event will be co-chaired by rapper ASAP Rocky, actor and playwright Colman Domingo, and Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton. Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue, will manage the event.
LeBron James, a basketball legend, will chair the event honorably.
The historic evening and accompanying museum display at the Costume Institute of the Met will take place five years following the massive anti-racist revolution of the Black Lives Matter movement, which forced several American cultural institutions to reevaluate how they portray diversity and race.
“Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” the spring 2025 show at the Costume Institute, will highlight Black men’s fashion within the complex historical framework of Black dandyism.
A guest curator, Monica Miller, is the inspiration behind the show’s theme, “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity.”
Dandyism was a style imposed on Black men in 18th century Europe, says the Met, when well-dressed “dandified” servants became a trend.
The concept also developed throughout history and the diaspora into a means for Black men to use style as a means of creativity, expression and identity establishment.
Speaking at the announcement of the exhibit and theme on Wednesday, Williams — the creative director of menswear at Louis Vuitton, a co-sponsor of the exhibit — emphasized the importance of celebrating cultures that emerged from the dark origins of slavery.
“As an artist who was literally born and raised in the shadow of where the African diaspora expanded into the country that would become America, celebrating an exhibit centered on Black dandyism and the African diaspora is really, for me, a full circle moment,” said Williams, who is from Virginia.
“It’s literally a dream.”
He claimed that in addition to surviving the atrocities of slavery, “we carried the music, the culture, the beauty, and the universal language across an ocean and over a quadruple century” as part of the Black diaspora.
Originally scheduled for the first Monday in May, the Met Gala was exclusive to New York’s elite society for many years after it was founded in 1948.
In the 1990s, Wintour—the high priestess of US fashion—took control of the event, turning it into a runway for affluent people.
Along with being a social media event when stars dress outrageous costumes in an attempt to produce the greatest spectacle, it’s a fundraiser for the Costume Institute.
According to The New York Times, a seat at the dinner in 2024 cost $75,000 and a full table went for $350,000. Last year’s edition raked in some $22 million.
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