As the 2025 Met Gala red carpet festivities got underway, Anna Wintour was joined by gala co-chairs Colman Domingo and Lewis Hamilton and greeted by a choir of Black men clad in tuxedos singing the Ashford & Simpson Motown classic “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”
The longtime Vogue magazine editor tapped the recent Oscar nominee and Formula One racer to co-chair the glitzy event, which raises funds for the Metropolitan Museum of Art‘s Costume Institute.
Harlem-born rapper A$AP Rocky, hip hop producer-turned-fashion executive Pharrell Williams and Los Angeles Lakers LeBron James were also selected to serve on the host committee of the star-studded affair, known as the Super Bowl of Fashion.
Domingo, Hamilton, Rocky and Williams all individually grace four special covers of the fashion bible’s May 2025 issue — celebrating their views on Black excellence, resiliency, and power.
The 2025 Met Gala theme “Tailored for You” ties into the museum’s new exhibit, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” which focuses on menswear and suiting. It opens to the public May 10.
Wintour, who has presided over 26 Met Galas, described this year’s event as “particularly meaningful and emotional” in an interview Monday.
“The exhibition is recognizing Black designers and recognizing the joy and confidence and always, the liberation of dressing with confidence can mean to everybody,” she told ABC News.
When probed further about the roles Black people play in fashion, the 75-year-old fashion maven said, “there’s always more work to be done.”
She acknowledged the industry is “very aware that the Black fashion community needs to be supported as much as possible” and hopes the new exhibition will shine a light “on the talent of all the arbiters of style, and look at their traditions and their history and their culture.”
The exhibit itself is inspired by guest curator Monica L. Miller’s 2009 book, “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity” — exploring “the Black dandy as both a concept and an identity signifier.”
On the red carpet Monday evening, Wintour —adorned in a pastel blue tailored Louis Vuitton coat — gave a shout-out to her late friend, Vogue editor-at-large Andre Leon Talley.
“I just hope that people see the exhibition and understand the talent that is involved in putting it together and the incredible designers that we’re putting the spotlight on in the show and the people that influenced the show like my friend Andre Leon Talley who’s been such an inspiration throughout,” she told E! News. “And it’s about optimism, hope and community and I hope many many people come and see it.”
Museum officials announced Monday that it raised a record-breaking $31 million for tonight’s fundraiser. It’s the highest haul taken in over the event’s 77-year history.
