Colman Domingo arrived at the Met Gala in New York, the annual fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, on Monday night in a Valentino blue silk cape with a gold bib. Later, the actor-playwright and co-chairman of this year’s gala revealed a second outfit: a mismatched zoot suit of clashing patterns, also by Valentino.
The former was a nod to the legendary late Vogue editor André Leon Talley, who partly inspired the accompanying exhibition, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, and whose presence — and penchant for suiting — was palpable throughout what’s often called fashion’s biggest night. He occupied the rarefied front rows, yet often spoke about being both embraced and othered by the very world he helped to define.
At the gala, many didn’t just follow the “Tailored for You” dress code issued by the museum. They embodied its meaning and did not neglect to make a cultural point too.
Pharrell Williams, Louis Vuitton’s menswear creative director and another of the event’s co-chairs, wore black trousers and a white jacket embroidered with 100,000 pearls. But the look — muted on camera — lacked the flash of his usual signature style. Fresh off the Miami Grand Prix, fellow co-chair Lewis Hamilton arrived on the Met steps in a tribute to the lineage of Black elegance. The cropped ivory suit, designed by Grace Wales Bonner, featured coat-tails, a Stephen Jones beret and symbolic details such as cowrie shells and baobab flower motifs — nodding to the musician Cab Calloway and Barkley L Hendricks, the 1970s-era Black portrait artist.
A$AP Rocky wore a black suit under a black AWGE parka, designed by him under his creative agency and instantly shoppable via Cash App Afterpay. The outfit made a dark foil for statement diamonds: diamond-encrusted Ray-Ban Wayfarers, a Bulgari ruby-pendant necklace and a Briony Raymond umbrella sparkling with 90 carats of stones.
Meanwhile, women reimagined the suit in bold, sculptural ways. Rihanna, who showed up after 10pm, used fashion to make yet another headline-worthy announcement — revealing her third pregnancy with A$AP Rocky in a custom Marc Jacobs look that turned a tailored jacket into a dramatic bustle. The silhouette, paired with a wide-brimmed hat, looked as if she had stepped out of “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte” by Georges Seurat.
Teyana Taylor’s ensemble made one of the biggest statements of the night. In a durag, diamond-stacked jewellery, crown-topped cane and a velvet cape stitched with the “Harlem Rose”, a reference to her 2018 song “Rose in Harlem”, the look was co-designed by Taylor herself with Ruth E Carter, a costume designer for the movie Black Panther.
While Marc Jacobs delivered some of the night’s strongest looks, Louis Vuitton was more hit-and-miss — dressing rapper-of-the-moment Doechii in logo-drenched baggy shorts and a coattail jacket, and Sabrina Carpenter in a pantless tailored tailcoat.
But Zendaya saved the day, proving that less is more in a crisp all-white suit that nodded to ’70s power dressing — the kind that played with masculine tailoring and feminine glamour, à la Bianca Jagger and Diana Ross, who made her last Met Gala appearance over 20 years ago in 2003.
Ross arrived in a crystal-covered white gown with a feather-trimmed cape and towering hat. The 18ft train was so grand it required six handlers — including her son, Evan Ross. It was a loose take on the menswear theme, but rich with meaning: she called it a “family gown,” embroidered with the names of her children and grandchildren.
While there were plenty of standout gowns — from Sha’Carri Richardson’s Valentino by Alessandro Michele to Gigi Hadid’s gold Miu Miu, inspired by 1940s designer Zelda Wynn Valdes — it was those who riffed on menswear who truly made it their own. Tyla wore a pinstriped Jacquemus gown, Jennie Kim reimagined the tuxedo in a satin off-the-shoulder Chanel jumpsuit with a sweeping overskirt, and Anne Hathaway paid homage to Talley in a Carolina Herrera look with a sequinned striped skirt.
It was a starry and stylishly adventurous Met Gala. And it gave the museum another reason to celebrate: the event raised $31mn, making it the most lucrative in its 77-year history.
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