Talking black excellence over cocktails inside the Met Gala

New York: The Met Gala's themes can sometimes be vague, but this year, the Costume Institute benefit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art got far more specific. The night was a celebration of "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style," a new exhibition focusing on the Black dandy and its influence on fashion.

The show was guest curated by Monica L Miller, chair of the Africana studies department at Barnard College, whose 2009 book inspired the collection. At a cocktail party to toast the opening, the stars sported their best take on the Black dandy or, in Kim Kardashian's case, a quaintrelle.

"I'm not sure how to pronounce it," Kardashian said of the term, meaning a woman who uses personal style to emphasize a life of passion, as she walked into the Great Hall of the Met. "I had a vision of a modern-day dandy like Lenny Kravitz, and so that's who I was inspired by with Chrome Hearts."

This year's exhibition was sponsored by Instagram, Louis Vuitton and Tyler Perry, among others. The honorary chair of the event was basketball star LeBron James, who said he was unable to attend because of a knee injury. His wife, Savannah, came in his stead.

"I am supporting my husband here on behalf of him," she said. "But if there is any Met Ball that I would love to be a part of, it is this one. This is more than I could have imagined."

As guests walked into the museum they were greeted by more than 7,000 faux narcissus flowers suspended in the air. And as they walked up the stairs, they were received by a decorated group of co-chairs that included Oscar nominee Colman Domingo, rapper ASAP Rocky, Formula One race car driver Lewis Hamilton and Pharrell Williams, Louis Vuitton men's creative director. That group, save for ASAP Rocky, stood at the top of the stairs alongside Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue and the global editorial director of Condé Nast, who has been orchestrating the Met Gala since 1999.

For some of the guests, this year's gala was particularly special.

"This one is just steeped in meaning," said tennis great Venus Williams. "You can see by what everyone wore, how much thought they put into it, also how much it meant to them and how much they wanted to get it right."

She added: "No matter what is happening in your life, no matter what barriers you're facing, no matter what freedoms you have or don't have, you can still express yourself, through what you wear, and still be powerful."

The history of the Black dandy goes back to when some enslaved people were forced to dress in an elevated style. Black people later embraced that style to reflect their social mobility and their aspirational freedom. The style is about self-expression in incredible detail, which was reflected in many of the stars at this year's gala.

"I am woman dandyism," rapper Megan Thee Stallion said during cocktails while wearing a sparkly Michael Kors number. "I'm giving Josephine Baker, a little Eartha Kitt."

Fresh off an Oscar win, Zoe Saldaña was dressed in a Thom Browne gown as she sat next to fellow actor Kerry Washington in the American Wing of the museum. Everyone who walked into the area stopped to greet them, including actors Demi Moore and Ayo Edebiri.

Dandyism and Black excellence are not things to be celebrated only on occasion, Saldaña said. "We celebrate every day when we wake up and while we're sleeping."

Dandyism can also reflect refined and elegant personal style, which was embraced by luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance like Claude McKay and Langston Hughes. That style of dress empowered Black people and allowed them to assert their dignity.

"We have always been here," said Grammy-winning rapper Doechii, who was wearing custom Louis Vuitton menswear. "I've always been here. What I represent for fashion and dandyism right now has always been here. It means everything to me. It means history and representing the dandies that came before me."

Stylist Law Roach had predicted days before that it would be the Blackest gala in the history of the event, which was by design. Joining the co-chairs was a host committee of 25 Black celebrities that included Edebiri, Jeremy O. Harris, Janelle Monáe, André 3000, Regina King and Spike Lee

"It's looking pretty much like what I said," Roach said as he walked in to the gala decked out in Burberry.

"I think it's important for us to be celebrated for the contributions that we've made," he added. "Decade after decade, century after century, that not only affects culture, but pop culture and fashion and everything else."

As Miley Cyrus, Sabrina Carpenter and Jeremy O. Harris chatted near the back of the American Wing, Edward Enninful shouted into his cellphone behind the bar. Gigi Hadid laughed with Derek Blasberg not too far away. At another bar in the wing, Future chatted up FKA twigs while Pharrell Williams and Wintour continued to hold court nearby. As Jeff Goldblum made his way inside the wing, castmates from HBO's "Euphoria" -- including Zendaya, Hunter Schafer and Sydney Sweeney -- hugged and hung around.

The Costume Institute and Vogue had been working on this year's theme for several years before it all finally came to life. The starry celebration of the Black dandy was held a month after President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History."

In the order, Trump took aim at the Smithsonian Institution for coming "under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology." Among guests at the 2025 Met Gala, however, the idea of celebrating the Black dandy didn't seem particularly divisive.

"This is, like, the total opposite of what's happening in the country today," director Spike Lee said, wearing Fear of God and checking the score of the New York Knicks game.

"You see all these artists, business people, successful Black folks, it is vibrant," Lee added. "Everybody's getting love, everybody's giving love."

The theme coming to fruition at this specific time was not lost on producer and songwriter Babyface, who nursed a drink while wearing a black and white Laquan Smith ensemble.

"There has always been flavor," he said. "So being able to embrace that tonight and the timing tonight with what's going on in our country right now, it couldn't be better. I feel very honored that they saw to it."

Well after the cocktails were over, as a choir set up in the Great Hall to serenade guests as they departed for dinner in the Temple of Dendur, Rihanna finally made her way up the steps. As is often the case, she was the last guest to arrive.

"Dandyism is excitement, reinterpretation," she said as she rushed into the event, somehow donning a corset over a freshly revealed baby bump. "It is all the things I love about Black people, how we just take things in and make it our own and make it something that is covetable."