(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 the history of fashion through black diasporas, the prestigious museum announced on Wednesday.
Five years after the immense wave of anti-racist protest of the Black Lives Matter movement, which pushed many American cultural institutions to rethink their representation of diversity, the gala in May 2025 will also be co-chaired by rapper ASAP Rocky, actor Colman Domingo , and, like every year, the high priestess of fashion and editor-in-chief of the magazine VogueAnna Wintour.
American basketball legend LeBron James was announced as honorary president.
Black dandyism refers, according to the Met, to a style of clothing first imposed on slaves in 18th century Europe.e century, and its reappropriations throughout the history of fashion. This theme will also be at the center of the major exhibition of the Costume Institute, the textile arts department of the Metropolitan Museum, whose opening traditionally coincides with the gala, the first Monday in May.
Present at the museum for the announcement, alongside British driver Lewis Hamilton, the musician, producer and now creative director of Louis Vuitton – one of the sponsors of the event – Pharrell Williams stressed the importance of celebrating cultures from of slavery, which still haunts American society.
“We are survivors of perhaps the worst ordeal ever suffered by any group of human beings, and not only have we survived, but we have carried music, culture, beauty and a universal language through an ocean and four centuries,” he emphasized during his speech.
“This is what the Met Gala will celebrate: us, our talents, our history, our gastronomy, our resilience and our beauty, our style and our strength,” he added.
The Met Gala, an unmissable event for fashion fans, known throughout the world for its climb of the steps taken by celebrities in extravagant outfits by major designers, aims to finance the “Costume Institute”.
According to the New York Timesthe place at the dinner cost in 2024 75,000 dollars, an entire table 350,000 and the previous edition brought in some 22 million dollars.