Henry Taylor, Tyler Mitchell, and Amy Sherald Among Artists Who Walked Met Gala ‘Blue’ Carpet Based on Cy Gavin Painting

ARTIST HENRY TAYLOR IN LOUIS VUITTON. | For Vogue’s special Met Gala issue, Henry Taylor painted a cover portrait of Met Gala Co-Chair Pharrell Williams, men’s creative director at Louis Vuitton. The exhibition “James Jarvaise & Henry Taylor: Sometimes a Straight Line Has to Be Crooked” opens at Hauser & Wirth in Downtown Los Angeles on June 29, 2025. | Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

An array of cultural figures attended the 2025 Met Gala, including Black artists, photographers, and fashion designers who contributed to the vision for the Black dandy project

PAYING HOMAGE TO BLACK DANDY STYLE, this year’s Met Gala was inspired by “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” the spring exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. Based on “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity” (2009), a scholarly volume authored by Monica L. Miller, the exhibition is the first in the institute’s history to focus on Black style.

The Met Gala is a fashion-focused fundraiser benefitting the Costume Institute. Hosted by Vogue’s Ana Wintour, the event garners attention for its red carpet arrivals, where a succession of bold face names showcases avant-garde looks by a variety of designers. Figures from the fields fashion, film, sports, and entertainment appear annually. This year, high-profile Black artists, photographers, and designers were among those in the spotlight at the May 5 gala.

Inspired by the exhibition, the dress code for the Met Gala was “tailored for you,” which yielded broad interpretations of the Black dandy theme, some more successful than others. Many of the 400 or so guests worked with an array of emerging and established Black designers on their looks, including Wales Bonner, Fear of God, Ozwald Boateng, Hanifa, Harbison, Public School, Torishéju, Sergio Hudson, Bianca Saunders, Christopher John Rodgers, L’Enchanteur, and Casely-Hayford.

From the Black dandy theme to the selection of Met Gala co-chairs (Pharrell Williams, Lewis Hamilton, Colman Domingo, A$AP Rocky) and representation among the attendees, the 2025 Met Gala was the Blackest ever.

Chef Kwame Onwuachi was in charge of the menu. Host committee members included Dapper Dan, Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee, Edward Enninful, Andre 3000, Jeremy O. Harris, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Audra McDonald, Olivier Rousteing, and Janelle Monáe. Kamala Harris, Zendaya, Rihanna, Diana Ross and Tracee Ellis Ross, Ryan Coogler, Stevie Wonder, Lauryn Hill, Jon Batiste, Chris Rock, Whoopi Goldberg, Ava DuVernay, Kerry Washington, Zoe Saldana, Colin Kaepernick, and Venus and Serena Williams, were also among the cultural heavyweights invited to the gala.

Black artists were in attendance, too, and tapped for key contributions. In terms of the “Superfine” exhibition, Torkwase Dyson developed the visual concept for the presentation. Tanda Francis designed bespoke mannequins. Iké Udé, the artist and author recognized for his dandy-style, served as a special consultant to the exhibition.

For Vogue’s special Met Gala issue, Henry Taylor painted a portrait of Williams and photographers Udé, Tyler Mitchell, and Malick Bodian captured the other Met Gala co-chairs for four different covers. Mitchell also photographed “Superfine & Dandy, a fashion portfolio featured inside the magazine, and contributed a photo essay to the Superfine exhibition catalog. Text by Amy Sherald is also published in the catalog.

ARTISTS CY GAVIN & ALEX DE CORTE. | Cy Gavin contributed to designing the decor for the Met Gala. A painting by Gavin inspired the blue carpet where the arrivals that captured the world’s attention were staged. An exhibition of new paintings by Gavin is on view at Gagosian Hong Kong through Aug. 2, 2025. The solo gallery show marks the artist’s debut in Asia. | Photo: Kevin Mazur/MG25/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

At the Met Gala, Rashid Johnson and Jordan Casteel served on the host committee. For the arrivals, Cy Gavin reinvented the red carpet experience with his deep blue vision scattered with white flowers. “Untitled (Sky),” a painting by Gavin inspired the carpet design.

White daffodils grow in a field outside the artist’s Upstate New York studio and when he considered the history of Black dandyism and the timing of the exhibition and gala, he was struck by some of the symbolic parallels with the flower. The spring perennial signals the arrival of a new season and its genus references the Greek myth of Narcissus. Vogue spoke to Gavin about the project. In the report, Elise Taylor wrote:

Though Gavin admits there are many interpretations of the tragedy, he honed in on one facet: when Narcissus sees his reflection for the first time in the pool of water. “I became interested in that moment of self-recognition and appreciation,” he says. Such a sentiment struck him as powerful amid this season’s exhibition, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style”, which examines Black dandyism and identity. “It’s very easy to not see yourself clearly because of all the selves that other people tell us we are—and I was struck by the poignancy of that being also a sort of punishment,” he adds.

Inside the gala, Gavin’s painting was projected onto the ceiling of the Met Museum’s Temple of Dendur and inspired a central installation—a shower of blooms cascading above a bed of white flowers. On the blue carpet, the flowers are meant to be read as stars dotting the night sky.

The following captures the artists arriving at the Met Gala with Gavin’s vision serving as a perennial backdrop in all of the images:

ARTIST AMY SHERALD IN FEAR OF GOD BY JERRY LORENZO. | Amy Sherald contributed a brief essay titled “Tailoring Perception: Power, Identity, and Obama’s Tan Suit” to the exhibition catalog “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” Sherald is a painter who is known for her portraits. “Amy Sherald: American Sublime,” the artist’s traveling survey is on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, through Aug. 10, 2025. Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/MG25/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

ARTIST ARTHUR JAFA IN FEAR OF GOD BY JERRY LORENZO. | Art21 recently released a new short documentary: “Arthur Jafa: Sequencing the Notes.” This fall, Arthur Jafa is curating an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, drawing on the institution’s collection. “Artist’s Choice: Arthur Jafa—Less Is Morbid” opens Nov. 19, 2025. | Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/MG25/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

CURATOR AND SCHOLAR MONICA L. MILLER IN WALES BONNER. | Monica L. Miller is guest curator of “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” and lead author of the exhibition catalog. Professor and chair of Africana studies at Barnard College at Columbia University, Miller published “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity” in 2009. Her book inspired the exhibition, which in turn informed the theme of the Met Gala. | Photo: Kevin Mazur/MG25/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

ARTIST TYLER MITCHELL IN WALES BONNER. | Brooklyn, N.Y.-based artist and photographer Tyler Mitchell photographed A$AP Rocky in Harlem for one of four covers produced for Vogue’s special Met Gala issue. Mitchell also produced Superfine & Dandy, an expansive portfolio inside the magazine inspired by dandy-style suiting. In addition, he contributed a photo essay and brief text to the exhibition catalog that accompanies “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” His latest exhibition, “Tyler Mitchell: Wish This Was Real,” is on view at Photo Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland, through Aug. 17, 2025. | Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

MODEL CHRISTIAN LATCHMAN IN WALES BONNER. | Christian Latchman is pictured on the cover of the exhibition catalog “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” The cover portrait was photographed by Tyler Mitchell and Latchman is wearing a Wales Bonner ensemble from Spring/Summer 2017. | Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

ARTIST MING SMITH IN HARBISON | A masterful photographer known for experimenting with light and blur techniques, Smith posted about attending the Met Gala on Instagram: “What a Magical Moment! Thank You @lewishamilton.” Lewis Hamilton, the British race car drive was one of the Met Gala co-chairs and he invited Smith to be a guest at his table, along with several other prominent women, including Jordan Casteel and Lauryn Hill. On Instagram, Hamilton wrote, “This year, my intention was to uplift and be surrounded by some of the Black women whose brilliance moves me—artists, thinkers, visionaries who carry history and possibility in everything they do.” Smith’s first solo show in Europe (“Ming Smith: I Paint with Light”) was on view last month at M77 Gallery in Milan. In 2024, four exhibitions of Smith were on view simultaneously in Ohio at the Wexner Center for the Arts, The Gund at Kenyon College, and the Columbus Museum of Art, where two exhibitions were featured—“Transcendence” and “August Moon.” The shows coincided with the presentation of “Ming Smith: Feeling the Future” at Spelman College Museum of Art. | Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

DESIGNER GRACE WALES BONNER & CURATOR ANTWAUN SARGENT IN WALES BONNER. | Grace Wales Bonner was a member of the Met Gala Host Committee. Archival designs by Wales Bonner are included in the exhibition “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” In addition, she contributed an essay titled “Everything’s for Real: Recollections of Black Style” to the exhibition catalog and an ensemble of her design is worn by model Christian Latchman on the cover. Antwaun Sargent is a curator, writer, and director at Gagosian gallery in New York, where he works with artists such as Tyler Mitchell, Cy Gavin, and Lauren Halsey. | Photo: Dia Dipasupil/MG25/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

ARTIST IKÉ UDÉ. | Nigerian American artist and author Iké Udé photographed actor Colman Domingo, for one of four covers produced for Vogue’s special Met Gala issue (May 2025). Udé, who is recognized for his dandy style, also served as a consultant to the “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” exhibition. | Photo: Kevin Mazur/MG25/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

ARTIST JORDAN CASTEEL IN HARBISON. | Jordan Casteel is a member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s board of trustees and she also served on the host committee for the Met Gala. Casteel is a painter who is known for her portraits. “Jordan Casteel: A Presentation of Works,” a solo exhibition of the artist is on view at Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery in London, through June 8, 2025. | Photo: Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

ARTIST ERIC N. MACK IN WALES BONNER. | The work of Eric N. Mack is a nexus of fashion, textiles, painting, and space. He invests in the meaning, identity, and history embedded in fabrics. On Instagram, he wrote about the details of his Met Gala ensemble made in collaboration with Wales Bonner. The opera coat was lined with fabric from Mack’s collection of scarves and he wore silk head scarf of his own making in homage to André Leon Talley. “Eric N. Mack: All the Oohs and Aahs,” a solo exhibition of the artist, opens at the Wexner Center for the Arts at the Ohio State University in Columbus on Aug. 23, 2025. | Photo: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

ARTIST TANDA FRANCIS IN A. POTTS. | Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Tanda Francis focuses on public art, particularly monumental African heads. For the “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” exhibition, Francis designed bespoke mannequins with sculpted heads modeled after André Matsoua (1899-1942). An anti-colonial, Congolese activist and politician, Matsoua is recognized as the first sapeur. La Sape (Society of Ambiance Makers & Elegant People) is a dandy-style fashion subculture in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Brazzaville in the Republic of the Congo. Members of La Sape are called sapeurs. | Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

ARTIST LAUREN HALSEY IN FEAR OF GOD. | In 2022, Lauren Halsey presented “eastside of south central los angeles hieroglyph prototype architecture (I)” on the rooftop of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The installation was a monument to her neighborhood. The Los Angeles artist was the first Black artist selected for the museum’s Roof Garden Commission. Halsey curated “resonance” (April 23, May 24, 2025) at Anthony Gallery in Chicago, a group exhibition featuring 30 artists “whose dynamic practices and eclectic strategies of representation, storytelling, and thematic exploration create a generative bridge for dialogue, respite, and rumination.” On May 17, Halsey was honored, alongside Jane Fonda, at the Hammer Museum Gala in the Garden 2025. | Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

ARTISTS RASHID JOHNSON & SHAREE HOVSEPIAN IN TORY BURCH. | Rashid Johnson was a member of the Met Gala host committee. Johnson and his wife, Sharee Hovsepian, are friends with designer Tory Burch, with whom he collaborated on a Met Gala look for filmmaker Janicza Bravo. “Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers,” a 30-year retrospective of the artist is on view at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, through Jan. 18, 2026. | Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

FILMMAKER JANICZA BRAVO IN TORY BURCH X RASHID JOHNSON. | Friends Rashid Johnson and Tory Burch collaborated on Janicza Bravo’s Met Gala ensemble. Three of Johnson’s paintings were transformed into fabrics. Figures from his Anxious Men series and boats from his Seascape series were among the motifs features on the fabrics. Further enhancements included embellishments and techniques such as micro sequins, caviar beading, transparent paillettes, embroidery, painted foil, and silicone embossing. These couture-grade textiles were used to design a layered skirt and jacket look for the filmmaker. Bravo was also featured in Vogue’s special Met Gala issue, wearing Thom Browne in the Superfine & Dandy portfolio photographed by Tyler Mitchell. | Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

ARTIST TORKWASE DYSON | The exhibition design for “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” was developed by Torkwase Dyson. Guest Curator Miller L. Miller said the concept “features her signature hyper shapes, monumental architectural forms that explore themes of Black life such as reflection, theatricality, and transcendence.” The Public Art Fund recently debut a sculptural installation by Dyson at Brooklyn Bridge Park. “Akua” is a “large, open pavilion with an immersive multi-channel soundscape.,” on view through March 8, 2026. | Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
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FIND MORE Vogue magazine reporting on artist Cy Gavin’s inspiration for the Met Gala blue carpet here and here

“Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, N.Y., from May 10-Oct. 26, 2025. The exhibition is organized by guest curator by Monica L. Miller, with Costume Institute Curator in Charge Andrew Bolton, William DeGregorio, and Amanda Garfinkel, with help from Kai Marcel. Artist Torkwase Dyson developed the conceptual design, artist Tanda Francis designed bespoke sculpted mannequin heads, and artist and author Iké Udé served as a special consultant

BOOKSHELF
The exhibition catalog “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” is authored by Monica L. Miller with Andrew Bolton, William DeGregorio, and Amanda Garfinkel with photography by Tyler Mitchell. Pacific (Elizabeth Karp-Evans and Adam Turnbull) designed the catalog. “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity” by Monica L. Miller inspired the exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “I Can Make You Feel Good: Tyler Mitchell” is the photographer’s first monograph. “Henry Taylor: B Side” documented the artist’s recent traveling retrospective and “Henry Taylor” is the artist’s first major monograph. Both “Style File: The World’s Most Elegantly Dressed” and “Nollywood Portraits: A Radical Beauty” are by Iké Udé. Also consider, “Dandy Lion: The Black Dandy and Street Style” by Shantrell P. Lewis and “Black Ivy: A Revolt in Style” and the recently published “Black in Fashion: 100 Years of Style, Influence & Culture.”