Pharrell Williams and black dandyism in the spotlight at the 2025 Met Gala in New York

Singer Pharrell Williams and F1 driver Lewis Hamilton will co-chair the next gala at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, with the theme of fashion history through black diasporas, the prestigious museum announced on Wednesday.

Five years after the great wave of anti-racist protests of the “Black Lives Matter” movement, which pushed many American cultural institutions to rethink the representation of diversity, the gala in May 2025 will also be a co- chaired by rapper ASAP Rocky, actor Colman Domingo, and, as every year, high priestess of fashion and editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine, Anna Wintour.

American basketball legend LeBron James was named honorary president.

Black dandyism refers, according to the Met, to a style of clothing that was first imposed on slaves in Europe in the 18th century, and how it was reused throughout fashion history. This theme will also be at the center of the great exhibition of the “Costume Institute”, the costume art department of the Metropolitan Museum, whose opening traditionally coincides with the gala, the first Monday in May.

Present at the museum for the announcement, together with the British driver Lewis Hamilton, the musician, producer and now creative director of Louis Vuitton – one of the sponsors of the event – Pharrell Williams emphasized the importance of it is to distinguish cultures from slavery, which still haunts America. association

“We have probably survived the worst trials that any group of people has ever suffered, and not only have we survived, but we have music, culture, beauty and to carry a universal language across an ocean and four centuries,” he said. his speech.

“This is what the Met Gala celebrates: us, our talents, our history, our gastronomy, our resilience and our beauty, our style and our strength,” he said.

The Met Gala, a must-see event for fashion fans, known around the world for climbing the steps made by famous people in unusual clothes by top designers, aims on the “Costume Institute”.

According to the New York Times, a seat at the dinner cost $75,000 in 2024, a full table cost $350,000 and the previous edition brought in about $22 million.

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