What the 2025 Met Gala’s ‘Tailored for You’ Dress Code Means

The first Monday in May has arrived, and with it, fashion’s most-watched red carpet. As guests make their way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art tonight, this year’s Met Gala dress code, “Tailored for You,” offers clear guidelines on what to wear. The prompt ties directly into “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” the theme of the Costume Institute’s spring exhibition.

The 2025 Met Gala dress code is “Tailored for You.” According to Vogue, the dress code is described as “purposefully designed to provide guidance and invite creative interpretation.”

While the phrase nods to suiting and structure, it’s not limited to classic menswear. Stylist Law Roach told ELLE ahead of the event, “I want to see amazing tailoring. I want to see different takes on tailoring. Because tailoring doesn’t necessarily have to mean a suit. There’s so many other ways that it can be expressed.” He added, “When I think of a tailor, I always also think of a beautiful wedding gown.”

“Tailored for You” complements the “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” exhibit, which centers on the art of tailoring in the context of Black dandyism. The show draws inspiration from Monica L. Miller’s 2009 book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, and highlights how tailoring has functioned as both personal expression and cultural critique.

“Dandyism can seem frivolous, but it often poses a challenge to or a transcendence of social and cultural hierarchies,” Miller told Vogue. “It asks questions about identity, representation, and mobility in relation to race, class, gender, sexuality, and power.”

Attendees are likely to interpret the theme through sharp tailoring, bespoke construction, and historical references.

Colman Domingo, one of this year’s co-chairs, said he drew directly from the exhibit’s themes when collaborating on his look. “I am a Black man who loves style, loves tailoring, and it struck me that I had never seen images like that—of myself, saying, I belong in these clothes,” he told Vogue.

Model Anok Yai, also attending, shared her approach with ABC News on May 4: “My initial reaction was of course to come in a suit. For this one, I’m going to take a men’s tuxedo but rework it in a modern way.”

Expect to see a mix of references, from Harlem Renaissance suiting to bold zoot suit silhouettes, oversize outerwear, and corseted reinterpretations of classic tailoring.

Accessories may include top hats, waistcoats, pocket watches, and brooches. But some expressions might not be literal. As celebrity stylist Solange Franklin Reed told Paper, “There’s something about dandyism that’s about extremes. I think of words like ‘restraint’ and also ‘ostentatious.’”

Several celebrities offered early previews of how they might be interpreting the “Tailored for You” dress code ahead of tonight’s event.

At a pre-Gala party in Harlem on May 2, Doechii made a playful nod to André Leon Talley in a full Louis Vuitton ensemble. The outfit featured white track pants, a red jacket, a monogrammed towel draped across her shoulders, and three pieces of monogrammed luggage. She kicked her leg mid-stride, recreating one of Talley’s photographs, which she shared to her Instagram Stories.

The rapper also posted the photo on her Instagram with the caption “ready?” The move may allude to her take on this year’s dress code.

At the Met Gala co-chair dinner yesterday, Rihanna made a statement in a tailored pinstripe suit, featuring a chocolate-brown blazer, wide-leg trousers, and gray pointed-toe heels. The sharply styled look could have previewed how she and partner A$AP Rocky, who is one of this year’s co-chairs, are approaching the dress code.

Tyla also embraced the theme early. The singer attended a pre-Met Gala event yesterday in a structured Tolu Coker minidress with a sharply drawn waist, exaggerated sleeves, and coordinating sculptural hat. The look, from the British-Nigerian designer’s fall/winter 2025 collection, was styled by Law Roach and captured the spirit of what he calls “the quaintrelle,” a term for “the female counterpart to the dandy.”

“I think of someone like Cardi B, Mae West, and Jayne Mansfield, and those women with those bodies,” Roach told ELLE. “Everything’s perfectly tailored. The waist is perfectly tiny.”

Domingo attended a pre-Met Gala event this morning in a burgundy pinstripe suit, styled with a coordinating tie. He finished the look with a black beret, black boots, and gold accessories, including a brooch pinned to his lapel. The styling nods to dandyism’s rich tradition of polished, personality-driven detail, offering a glimpse of the tailored elegance he’s likely to bring to the Met steps.

Yes. For many stylists and attendees, this year’s theme carries cultural weight. Mickey Freeman, who is styling a look for the evening, told Paper: “I’m thrilled that Black culturally-inspired menswear is finally receiving the recognition it deserves on such a monumental stage. I’m particularly looking forward to the unexpected interpretations that will emerge from this exploration!”

The night is expected to showcase not only fashion but also pride, heritage, and resistance through clothing. As Domingo put it to E!, “It’s going to be beautiful...I’m playing with history.”