Anna Wintour's Next Met Theme: Black Dandyism

She will co-chair the 2025 Gala alongside Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, A$AP Rocky, and Pharrell Williams, with honorary chair LeBron James.

Anna Wintour turns 75 on November 3. Though she has kept any plans she may have to exit Condé Nast quiet, I have watched the Met Gala announcements increasingly closely each year for any indication that she may be departing, only because even she is human and no human can do any job forever. The exhibitions are often announced in the fall around fashion month, and the Gala famously takes place on the first Monday the following May.

This week, we got confirmation she’s locked in through the spring. Vogue and the Met announced the next Costume Institute exhibition for which the Gala raises money: Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, an exploration of Black dandyism inspired by Monica L. Miller’s 2009 book, Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity.

Miller serves as a guest curator for the exhibition. The May 5, 2025 Gala will be co-chaired by Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, A$AP Rocky, Pharrell Williams, and Anna, while LeBron James serves as honorary chair. Pharrell’s employer Louis Vuitton is the major sponsor.

Courtesy Met Museum.

Whatever plans Anna may or may not have to leave, she seems to be in legacy-preserving mode. Her proudest achievement, her friends and close colleagues told me when reporting ANNA: The Biography, is her philanthropy. With nearly $250 million raised so far under her leadership, the Met Gala has been one of her biggest successes. It is for this kind of work that she wants to be remembered, though it’s difficult to imagine her reputation as the “devil who wears Prada” being forgotten.

The Black dandy theme comes after Anna’s reported attempt to stage a John Galliano show that was scuttled by Metropolitan Museum leadership, leaving the Costume Institute to put on Sleeping Beauties, sponsored by Loewe, instead. The previous year, the Costume Institute’s exhibition was devoted to Karl Lagerfeld, who has been remembered as much for his cruel comments about fat people and sexual assault victims as his work as a designer. (His contributions to fashion no doubt stand out after his death in contrast to Virginie Viard’s unpopular turn succeeding him at Chanel.)

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An exhibition and Gala devoted to celebrating Black fashion feels overdue for an institution like Vogue that has a well-documented history of white-washing.