New York ready for the extravagant Met Gala, Black dandyism in the spotlight

Like every first Monday in May, the steps of the prestigious museum on Manhattan's 5th Avenue, backing onto Central Park, become the most scrutinized red carpet on the planet, and crowds of fashionistas wait for long hours on the sidewalks, hoping to capture a star's image on their smartphone.

Grace Weston, in her twenties, wearing a black jacket, was already there on Monday morning, despite the wet weather.

"I'm here for Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo," the two stars of "Wicked" in theaters. "I think Cynthia is going to wear a colorful costume. Ariana, I'm not sure," she explains.

The Met Gala is an avalanche of stars, dressed in extraordinary outfits designed by the greatest designers. These are the "Oscars of fashion," with Vogue editor Anna Wintour as the high priestess.

She co-chairs the 2025 edition alongside a quartet including artist-turned-creative-director at Louis Vuitton, Pharrell Williams, F1 driver Lewis Hamilton, rapper ASAP Rocky and actor Colman Domingo.

To top it all off, American basketball legend LeBron James is the honorary chairman of this gala, which places even more emphasis on sports stars, now a staple on fashion catwalks.

Expected guests include gymnastics champion Simone Biles and sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson, alongside filmmaker and Knicks fan Spike Lee and emerging rap star Doechii.

Diversity

As usual, the evening's theme coincides with the Metropolitan Museum's major Costume Institute exhibition: this year, the Met promises an exploration of American fashion since the 18th century, exploring the clothing styles first imposed on Black populations in the United States and Europe, but which they later reappropriated and reinvented. Such is the case with Black dandyism, an aesthetic inherited from slavery that has become synonymous with elegance and emancipation.

The exhibition, which has been in preparation for months, is part of the quest for diversity in American cultural institutions, five years after the immense wave of anti-racist protests of the "Black Lives Matter" movement following the death of an African-American, George Floyd, killed by the police.

But it takes on a particular dimension at a time when Donald Trump, back in power, is cutting federal funding for any initiative promoting diversity, which he castigates as a trend that weakens meritocracy.

When the theme was announced last October, Pharrell Williams, whose brand is sponsoring the Costume Institute exhibition, emphasized the importance of celebrating cultures that emerged from slavery, which still haunts American society.

"We are the survivors of perhaps the worst ordeal ever endured by any group of human beings, and not only have we survived, but we have carried music, culture, beauty, and a universal language across an ocean and four centuries," he said.

"This is what the Met Gala will celebrate: us, our talents, our history, our gastronomy, our resilience and our beauty, our style and our strength," he added.

The gala and its red carpet are one of the most exclusive events on the planet, intended to fund the Costume Institute. This year, the event is expected to raise $31 million, Met Director General Max Hollein revealed Monday. According to the New York Times, a seat at the dinner costs $75,000, and a table costs $350,000.