BLACK DANDY FASHION WITH INTENTION AT THE MET GALA

There couldn't have been a more controversial Met Gala.

- RICKY TOLEDO & CHITO VIJANDRE

Attended by the brightest stars of film, music, art, sports and fashion, the theme was "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style," which is also the title of the exhibit of the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute, the event's beneficiary. The subject of the show was conceived since 2021 after the anti-racist uprising of the Black Lives Matter movement and was announced last October when Kamala Harris, the first female Vice President and the first Black woman to top a major-party ticket, was running for President.

Last Monday, however, when the Gala finally took place, it found itself in a totally new political environment under President-elect Donald Trump who leads a federal government determined to quash institutional initiatives that promote diversity as well as race-related programming.

This did not stop the guests from supporting the annual event and Kamala Harris was even the surprise guest of the evening. The gala, of course, "was never about politics, not in conception, not now. It's about self-determination, beauty, creativity and holding up a lens to history," says Anna Wintour, chair of the event and Vogue editor-in-chief. She acknowledges, however, that the Met's recognition of the contributions of Black designers and the Black community in fashion has "a heightened meaning in 2025."