Celebrating Black Style Inside the 2025 Met Gala

0:07Hello and welcome to The Debrief from the Business of Fashion, where each week we delve into our most popular B.O.F. professional stories with the correspondents who created them. I'm Executive Editor Brian Baskin. And I'm Senior Correspondent Sheena Butler-Young. Extreme tailoring, embellished capes, bejeweled canes, grills, and regal flair. In the first ever Met Gala to center Black style, history met modern culture in spectacular fashion. And to no one's surprise, the dandies owned the night. Today, we're breaking down the best, the worst, and the meaning behind it all. But first, while Tiana Taylor was getting ready for the Met Gala on Monday, one of the biggest acquisitions ever in the fashion world was announced.

0:50Skechers, which makes your mom's favorite comfy sneakers, agreed to be taken private by the Brazilian private equity firm 3G in a$9.4 billion deal. So before we get to the gala itself, which I know is why you're all here, we're going to talk a little bit about this historic acquisition. Sheena, why wasn't this on anyone's radar? How does a$9 billion deal come as a complete surprise? Well, the figure alone is a pretty big surprise. You don't hear that very often. Fashion dealmaking has been pretty stale this year and is expected to stay that way. But, you know, there was no indication that Skechers was putting itself on the selling block.

1:26There was no indication from the family, which is Robert Greenberg, who is the CEO and founder, that he was interested in changing the ownership layout of this brand. It's been publicly traded for a long time. And he and his family run the business still, and they're used to a certain structure. And no one expected him to be willing to change that. And then you have 3G, which is a private equity company known for buying restaurants like Burger King and Tim Hortons. When you see a private equity company buy another company, it's usually that that brand is in dire straits. Skechers is on a growth streak.

2:03They're doing really well. So none of the things that precipitate a deal like that or present and then the figure alone is pretty good. It's not an oversell for Skechers. They are doing really well and they, by all accounts, are worth that. But everything else just didn't really lead to us expecting this this week. So let's talk about why they're worth$9 billion. I mean, I joked before they make your mom's comfy sneakers, but, you know, you've always actually kind of defended Skechers and said there's more to this brand than kind of generic knockoff Adidas. I mean, they actually know what they're doing, right?

2:34Defend is a strong word. It sounds like I'm going to be wearing some Skechers to the Met. But no, I mean, they own their lane. They are sort of the leaders in affordable, comfortable footwear. They have this like utilitarian slip on or the orthopedic walking shoes. And then also they're popular with the kids. Like they have that light up sneaker that everyone's child, for better or worse, wants at some point in their lives. So I think the thing that Skechers does well is it knows who it is as a brand and it leans into that. And the other thing that they've been doing well recently is that they've been expanding.

3:07So they're not just your mom's comfortable, affordable sneaker or your dad's. They've expanded into soccer and into basketball. They've signed players like NBA stars Julius Randall and Joel Embiid. So not only do they have a strong market position, they're also growing. And I think to a lot of people that justifies a multi-billion dollar price tag. I think many of the brands present at the Met Gala wish they had what Skechers had in a certain way. I'm not going to argue with you. All right. Thank you, Sheena. And now let's get back to the Met Gala. Today, we are joined once again by BOF reporter Malik Morris to unpack the exhibit, the red carpet and the legacy this gala might leave behind.

3:50Malik, let's start with the theme for this year. Super Fine, Tailoring Black Style is the Met's first menswear-focused exhibition in 20 years, and it's the first to center black fashion and creativity ever, right? So why do they choose this theme and this year of all yours? Well, thank you so much for having me. It's great to be back on the debrief with you all. But yeah, no, I had the pleasure of going to both the red carpet, which we'll get into, but also a press preview for the exhibit on Monday. And Andrew Bolton, the chief curator of the Costume Institute at the Met, said at the press preview that Andre Leon Talley's passing was actually a catalyst for the exhibit.

4:28Talley was a longtime Vogue editor at large. He was instrumental in a generation of honestly Black people getting into fashion, myself included, watching him in things like the September issue. And he was this ultimate dandy, you know, his larger than light personality, his voluminous captains and his unrelenting appetite for glamour. glamour. And that actually merged with Monica L. Miller, who was a professor of Africana studies at Bernard College, who wrote a seminal text called Slaves to Fashion, Black Dandyism in the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, that Bolton said served as the perfect exploration of dandyism through the lens of race.

5:07And what's wonderful, really, that Miller guest curated the exhibit with the help of Andrew Bolton, who was not credited as co-curator this time around. And And that also plays into a lot of the themes that the exhibit is bringing to the floor, this idea of who has agency here in the fashion space and sort of the purposeful spotlighting of the Black visionary. And this is an important moment because it's the first Costume Institute exhibit focused solely on Blackness. They did have an exhibit focused on America and American design that did harken back to the American chattel slavery and the contributions of Black people throughout the history of fashion.

5:48But this is solely focused on Black people and their position in this industry. And fashion has a funny history with Black people from the days of bondage to our dearth and creative roles in the industry today still, while our creativity has been used as inspiration writ large across a range of different brands. And it's also quite a poignant message in the days of anti-DEI, you know, that a major cultural force like the Met and Conde Nast would want to center Blackness in this way and acknowledge our contributions to pushing fashion forward. Yeah, I love that you got into the complexity of dandyism.

6:23The exhibit also does a good job of acknowledging the dissidents. So you had themes, I think there's 12 themes to the exhibit, and some of them were like ownership and disguise, which harken back to slavery and like black people not having, not being seen as human. And then you had these more like light themes like beauty and cool and cosmopolitanism. Can we talk a little bit about what is a dandy or who counts as a dandy? Like, what is that today? Yeah, well, I think that what's beautiful about the exhibit, it highlights the sort of impact that Black people have had on tailoring and luxury fashion through our time.

6:58But it's really fascinating that it's through the specific lens of the Black dandy. I mean, a dandy has many definitions, but it typically defines a person, usually a man, who dresses in a precise, exacting, sort of ostentatious and colorful manner. He calls attention to himself. He commands a room. But, you know, when that's done by a Black person, it just takes on a new meaning. I think the rumination of the Black Dandy as it's displayed in the exhibit is sort of best summed up by one of my favorite cultural critics. Her name is Kimberly Nicole Foster. And she once said, you know, what's aesthetic for other communities is existential for ours.

7:30And that's ultimately what's explored here. We're signaling our value to ourselves and mitigating harm by showing up in our Sunday best and saying that, you know, we are dignified and regal and worthy of respect. And the thing about the exhibit and the way that it's framed with those 12 themes, I think one of my favorite sections was this one on respectability. And it featured this beautiful black burnished wool tailcoat worn by Frederick Douglass. And that just showed how our activism, while not reduced to an aesthetic, is indeed linked to how we wear beautifully cut clothing. It's like an armor against oppression through the use of like pomp and panache and like that principle of being buttoned up to defy expectations and command respect is resonant to this day.

8:15You mentioned before that this exhibition was sort of a belated acknowledgement that fashion had ignored the influence of Black dandies and Black style generally for many, many years, decades. Um, how much of that was explicit in the presentation of the exhibition as opposed to more implied by the choice of topic and how it was presented? I think it was incredibly explicit. Like, you know, at the start of the exhibit, you see some pieces from these black fashion designers at major houses. I think, you know, one was this Kente-style LV scarf that Virgil Abel, the late Virgil Abel designed during his time as men's creative director at Louis Vuitton.

8:59And also on display, as soon as you start walking to the exhibit, is this decadent military inspired black and gold jacket by Olivier Roustang at Beaumont. And what was wonderful about that is it was great at establishing the iconoclasm of a Black person at a legacy luxury label and the rarity of that, who is in turn defying stereotypes and barriers, but also the sense of importance that the clothes themselves take on, the new meaning they take on when it is designed by a Black person, especially in the context of luxury. because also one of my favorite stories that BOF has done is actually one that Sheena worked on with some former colleagues of ours about, you know, Black people and luxury and their consumption patterns and how it doesn't always align with their income levels and their realities, but how even despite that we are a voracious consumer, despite being ignored and what the way that the imagination is stretched when you have a Black person that works at a luxury house, I think is so beautifully displayed in the exhibit through those pieces, like that Kente-inspired look from LV and the military-inspired look from Balmain.

10:10It just has a sort of powerful conviction to it and what it's displaying and what it's saying. Thank you also for acknowledging that story, by the way. I wonder, in the moment that we're in politically around the widespread pullback of diversity, equity, inclusion programs. Does this exhibit and this recognition by the Met as an institution, do you think it has any long-term implications for maybe putting some wind to the back of DEI again and bring that back into the conversation in a more meaningful way? Or does it feel like this is a moment and it's cultural and it's interesting, but it's not going to move strategy long-term?

10:49You know, I think that the remit of the exhibit is that Black identity has always influenced fashion from how jazz musicians fashion themselves to how hip-hop stars take, you know, on the persona of someone who is luxurious and glamorous. And, you know, a hope is that maybe this moment makes non-Black people aware of just how embedded Black people are in the very concept of style as a tool to fashion identities. talking about, you know, anti-DEI and the ways that people who are not white are being primed to be erased from some of these really big institutions. I think when it comes to fashion, it is so much about creativity and it is so much about who shows up to buy the clothes and who gets ignored, even though they are showing up to buy the clothes.

11:36And I think what was great about the Met exhibit and Gala was that Black people had to see at the table, literally, but also figuratively, in our contribution to curating the exhibit and Monica Miller, and also Dressing the Stars, who shredded up the stairs on the first Monday in May, which we'll get into as well. I do hope that that lingers and reverberates industry-wide. We actually had, I was able to speak to Anna Wintour briefly on the carpet and asked, why now for this exhibit? And she talked about this, where we are in our culture with the attacks on DEI. It's very important for an institution like the Met to stand behind the Black community and make it a crucial focus.

12:14So, you know, with that being said, I hope that it reverberates and, you know, give us more of those exec roles and create a director position at massive institutions. Like that would be the win, you know, and the impact beyond just this particular time capsule. You spoke with a few Black designers who really spoke to getting a real leg up from this event. You know, Sergio Hudson dressing, was it 20 attendees? I mean, did they feel like, okay this is the start of something or that this is the end of something i definitely feel like they from the sense that i got was that this is wasn't a start or an end it was just a necessary acknowledgement because we open up the story with oswald botank who was actually made history as the first black designer at a french fashion house when he was menswear director for givon chi back in 2003 and you know he's always been here like i remember my first trip to London, I took a beeline to Savile Row to go to his store, and which is absolutely astounded by just the way that he blends dandyism, the way that he blends, you know, sartorial tailoring with his West African heritage, heritage.

13:24And he's been doing this for so long, you know, and for 40 years. So it's less about, is this going to start some momentum or is it the end of momentum, but more so like sustained momentum. And there was a great showing from independent black designers on the carpet, you know, Grace Wells Bonner, you know, she dressed at least like nine people, including Lewis Hamilton, who was a co-chair this year, and FKA Twigs, you know, a constant, you know, fascination in our culture. Jerry Lorenzo of Fear of God has some really high profile, you know, attendees with him. He had, you know, Ryan Coogler wore a look from Fear of God and he's hot off the number one movie in America, Sinners.

14:03And Adrian Brody also was wearing Fair of God. He's had a fifth second Oscar win for his role in The Brutalist. And Sergio Hudson also, of course, dressed 20 people. So there was an outside showing from indie Black designers, but I think a lot of it is contextualizing these creatives in the same vein as a Louis Vuitton, in the same vein as a Givenchy. We deserve to be here just as much, and you're acknowledging us on the same playing field. Can we get into some of those Galilocks specifically? I want to hear your take. You were there in the flesh on the carpet on how the so that the theme of the exhibit was black dandyism, but the carpet, the gala itself was tailored for you.

14:42How did your favorite guests interpret the theme? Well, I was obsessed with the young, gorgeous rapper Dochi and the equally gorgeous, budding actress Tiana Taylor. You know, their suiting was spot on and it's like dignified irreverence. You know, Tiana wore a burgundy cape, pinstripe suit with a waistcoat and a cane. I believe that was designed in collaboration with Ruth Carter, the two-time Academy Award winning costume designer for Black Panther. and Dolce had this cream monogrammed short set, a tailcoat with some shorts from Louis Vuitton with this burgundy pussy bow and matching shoes. But it was this sort of standout styling that took it over the edge on both looks.

15:24Like, I think that, again, the theme for the Red Cover was tailored for you so that it could widen the lens because people were very, very anxious about how non-Black attendees would, you know, interpret Black dandy as a Black style. So they had to make it a little bit broader. But these really tentpole A-list stars who are Black really leaned into their blackness. Tiana wore a durag, which is a scarf that I and many Black people wear to protect our hair at night. And it's quite controversial because it can signify the grittier parts of our community, but it's beautiful and elegant. And she really showed that.

15:54And Dolce, who again is just so stunning and a budding fashion icon, she wore this beautiful teased out afro. And, you know, Sheena, you've written about this as well, about the textured hair. And Black people's natural hair has always been up for debate, especially when it's of a tightly coiled texture. And Dochi said so much by wearing that beautiful crown on fashion's biggest night. And she's not the first to do it. Like Viola Davis famously wore, you know, textured afro at the Oscars and like just redefining, but also defining what is so natural to us is absolutely stunning and worthy of praise at the utmost event like the Met Gala.

16:30Absolutely. I agree with you on Tiana Taylor. I would also add Diana Ross to the list of like stunning moments, but Dochi and her fro I was talking to the business of beauty team and I just thought the one of the biggest testaments to black identity and black power if you will last night was in the hair like doji with the fro Colin Kaepernick is known for that very it's almost iconic fro but I saw a lot of the attendees leaning into that showing their textured hair and I thought that was a very important and powerful statement like Doja Cat also had a very textured look and so did Cardi B and I think that was important on something on a carpet that is the mat that is all about elegance and kind of rewriting the narrative of what looks elegant through hair was really really cool and the grills and the yes well we know it's so interesting because like i growing up with black women like i always associated things like braids right braided hair with elegance like whenever like or having twists in your hair.

17:34Like when it was time to get dressed up in a gown, like you were wearing braids, you were wearing twists. And so, but obviously that's nothing that's in the mainstream and that being brought to the mainstream. And I think specifically with Tiana and Dolce, who just are like these two hot stars of the moment, they really set out an exemplifying how the way we engage with style from our head to our toes is inherently political and statement making. And again, what is purely aesthetic for others is existential for us, but they did that in a way that wasn't didactic. ticket was just beautiful and it was just great to look at.

18:04And we're talking about fashion and that's the ultimate purpose, right? We'll be back with more of The Debrief right after this.

18:18We've talked about which designers were represented. Let's talk about the guests who were there. How do we feel that that reflected the theme of the evening and marked a departure or maybe continuity from past years? Well, I mean, being on the carpet was so insane because I was seeing people who have defined my life, you know, up close and personal. And the thing that I noticed is obviously the Met Gala is an A-list event for the A-list and really is one of the remaining vestiges of monoculture of the past. And the A-list defined a very particular way. Defined a very particular way and very much in traditional media.

18:59I always define the A-list as like who your mom knows, you know, like if I can say it to my mom, she's like, oh, I know who that person is. Oh yes. And I have thoughts. The Skechers telegraph. Yes. If that's not, then you're not A-list. But what was beautiful about who attended last night was you have the A-list of like the newer stars, right? Like the Doe Cheese, the Tiana Taylors, you know, a Dames and Idris, a Coco Jones, but you also had these inarguable legends, Diana Ross showing up in that gorgeous white cape looking like Diana Ross. I mean, you're going to get better than that. Lauryn Hill in this beautiful buttery yellow suit.

19:36You know, Mary J. Blige was there. Stevie Wonder was there. You know, Usher was there. Andre 3000 was there wearing a piano on his back. Like, it was such an honor of these luminaries past and present. And also, you know, in terms of like the unsung legends of fashion, like Dapper Dan was there on the red carpet. And I don't know if that was his first time attending that. I don't believe it is, but his significance to Black dandyism in modernity, through hip hop, through, you know, refashioning ourselves and these luxury logos that were not meant for us, which is incredibly significant. And obviously everyone can't be invited.

20:18It's a very expensive ticket price. Oftentimes the attendees are coming with designers, big brands that have bought tables or designers who have been invited. And we shouldn't have to sacrifice a few for others, but I do think it's worth mentioning that Black people had a massive presence at the event across generations. And that was quite stunning to see. Although I think that's been true to a degree for a few years, probably the last decade or so. And I think it's interesting that the culture at large has embraced, you know, Black celebrity in so many areas. And then in fashion, it feels like there's a lot of catch up happening.

20:56There are very few Black designers at major fashion houses. You know, people were even saying or, you know, you were saying, you know, that that the representation on the designer level, you know, who's buying tables like was not the same as the people walking the red carpet. Yeah, I did have a hot take during the night. I initially was, quite frankly, disappointed. Like the first few names that had come down the carpet as I was watching from home, I did not hear a single black designer name checked for a good few minutes. And I was concerned about that. But I think it's important to kind of talk about the ecosystem as to why.

21:29So, you know, why that might be the case. And Malik already hinted at that. It's like it's expensive to be there. Brands are investing hundreds of thousands of dollars for a table. So even if you're doing really amazing stuff on a runway, you just might not be able to pay your way into that room. And so I'd love to talk a little bit about that. Yeah, I mean, I think that that's all, you know, in the story we talk about Oswald Boateng and him having A-list clientele and them helping him buy this table. And the Met confirmed with us that the starting price for those tables are$350 ,000. That's not small potatoes.

22:03Like, that could be the budget for an indie brand's entire year. um so yes that can be a bit prohibited but i i don't want to undersell the fact that there was a lot of indie black designers and we talked you know a bit about you know sergio hudson dressing 20 people also bolting dressing 20 people graceful bonner dressing nine people you know jerry lorenzo um and they're laquan smith and they got huge stars and not and not just black stars like you know adrian brody wore um the affair of god um nick jonas wore bianca sanders this british designer, this British Black designer, like they were there and they were absolutely present.

22:41But I do think that in our consciousness, things can get swallowed, especially if you're watching mainstream, you know, red carpets commentary, like they're going to be wooed and seduced by, well, who's wearing, you know, Valentino and who's wearing Miu Miu and who's wearing Givenchy. But there was no dearth of independent Black designers there and no dearth of them dressing really, really hot stars of the moment. Like, you know, Tiana Taylor, one of my favorite looks of the night was co-designed by a Black woman. So, you know, it definitely had a massive, they had a massive outsized presence, probably the biggest presence that they've had, these indie Black designers on a Met carpet before.

23:18So one contingent that was not there was influencers, which has always been the case. There's been a, even when TikTok was one of the sponsors of the event last year, there was a grand total of two TikTokers at the Met Gala. And this year there were two fewer than that. So what is keeping influencers on the sideline when their fans at least would say they're just as A-list as Nicole Kidman or Madonna, right? Well, the issue is that they're not. And I think that, you know, what brought this to, you know, the four was the beautiful influencer Wisdom K, who has just been transformative in the ways that he displays fashion, the way that he can take themes like, I mean, food themes and make these high fashion looks.

24:02And as a TikTok juggernaut, was not invited to the Met this year, even though I believe he went last year as as a guest of the TikTok table who was a sponsor for last year's event. And I think, again, as I said in the beginning, this is one of the remaining vestiges of monoculture, right? And monoculture really is defined by our moms and who they know and our parents and who they know and who the common person, even if I've never heard a song you've done, I haven't really seen a movie you've done, I know who Diana Ross is. Like, I know who Madonna is. I know who Zendaya is, right? Everyone doesn't know who Wisdom K is.

24:38And his consortium of, like, really brilliant and sort of genre-defying and defining content creators of this generation. and I do, and this could be a very controversial opinion, but I think that something like the Met, which is there to benefit culture and there to benefit the arts, I don't know that that's necessarily a room that people who are not widely influential necessarily need to be invited to. Like, I think that the people who are actually shifting culture in a really meaningful way, past and present, and who have stood the test of time, and are icons in the making, are like present day icons.

25:15I do think that it makes a lot of sense for them to take up so much oxygen in a room. I think the issue is if those people are just one race. And I think that increasingly the Met has shown that that is not the case in terms of who's been invited, who gets to see the table. And I think with this Met specifically, we're talking about the designers and them having more of a buy-in and them having more of a presence. We're moving in the right direction, but I don't think that if you haven't broken out to touch people who may not know what you do closely, but impact them in some way, I don't know that that's necessarily you need to be there.

25:47Maybe I could be wrong. I know I can get a lot of tape for this, but that's just my perspective on it. Oh, I think that's quite true. Everything you said, although I do wonder, you know, some of these designers who had a major presence at the Met Gala for the first time, I'm sure a lot of their biggest champions have been some of these influencers who could not be on the guest list, right? I mean, is that true? I mean, I feel like I don't know that I think that's true. And the reason why I say that is because you see a lot of these design. I mean, we've all been working as fashion journalists for a while and like they're not I mean there's some press releases about influencers but they send us press releases when they like have gotten like a major celebrity to wear their clothes and like they have a notable supermodel like a Naomi Campbell who famously champions young designers and really does raise their profile and works for them and has really been instruments when doing that for black designers throughout the years I don't know that a Wisdom K who is beautiful who I love and who is amazing moves the needle in that way and i don't know that those are these young these young designers or these emerging designers any designers sole champions i think that a-list stars especially when you think about again going back to race and these black stars emerging black stars for years you know you have someone like a zendaya who who couldn't get i think there's a brand i won't name the brand and can't remember who she still doesn't work with because when she was on the come up they wouldn't dress her she was wearing black designers like i remember i actually interned for a young black designer over a decade ago and he was one of the first who was like dressing her because no one else was so um yeah i don't i don't know i hear what you're saying but i don't agree with the idea of these influences are championing these designers in a way that is super impactful i think a lot of the a-list stars specifically is a-list black stars or a-list stars from who are from underrepresented groups absolutely chip in and do that so again that's why my my rationale for like i don't think it's necessary that these tiktokers need to be there even though i love quite a few of them.

27:37Necessary would be a strong word for sure. I hear you on the, you know, the Met being sort of the last remaining monocultural event. One of, one of, one of, one of. One of, or one of the last remaining. Is this as progressive then as the Met is going to get? Them having a theme that centers Black culture, like what else can progression look like for an institution like the Met in the future? Where do we go from here? That's a great question. I, you know, again, this is the first that's centering Black style, but we have had exhibits like China Through the Looking Glass that was looking at stereotypes of Asian culture, but the beauty of certain factions of that culture and how that's infiltrated and influenced fashion.

28:19So we've done this in some ways before. I think that the progress will be even like, you know, a few years ago when we had the exhibit around America and all those black designers were there. The issue with that was that the red carpet had a lot of European designers on it. And I think the progress will be like a little bit more of an integration of these indie designers from creatives who are from a range of race and ethnicities being on the carpet. I'm not sure if there's a way to, again, it's a fundraiser. You don't want to lower the ticket price or the price of the table because that's what helps to fund the Costume Institute.

28:55But something where there is more of an outsize. The thing that I don't want to be a one-on-one or specific to this moment are these indie brands having an outsized presence at the Met Gala where they're going to get a visibility they're not really going to get elsewhere. I want that to be a little bit more endemic to this kind of event. I think that would be the progress. I think that's a nice note to end on. Positive, future looking. And I think that's a call to action to many people and many institutions. Malik, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. Always a pleasure. Please be sure to check out Malik's article at the Met Gala, Dandy's Own the Night at businessoffashion.com.

29:35And we also had an excellent story on black beauty at the gala by Brennan Kilbane that you can also check out while you're there. These and other stories are available to BOF Professional subscribers only, and you can find the links in the episode notes. You've been listening to The Debrief, produced and edited by Olivia Davies and Eric Bria. I'm Brian Baskin. And I'm Sheena Butler-Young. We'll be back next week with a new episode. Thanks so much for joining us, and be sure to follow us wherever you get your podcasts.