Last October, when the costume institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced its next fashion show, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style”, the political landscape looked very different.
Kamala Harris, the first female vice-president and the first black woman ever surpasses a head farting ticket, was in the last weeks of her campaign for the White House. The show, the highlight of five years of work of Andrew Bolton, the curator of the costume institute, to diversify the interests and shows of the department in the aftermath of the racial settlement caused by the murder of George Floyd, seemed too late for a long time.
On Monday, however, when it finally opens for the star guests at the characteristic gala, the smashing party of the year, it will do this in a completely different world. One in which the federal government has declared functional war against diversity, fairness and inclusion, as well as programming related to race – especially in cultural institutions.
In February, President Trump grabbed control of the Kennedy Center and promised to ‘wake up’ his programming less. Then, at the end of March, he signed one executive order aimed at what the administration described As “incorrect, division or anti-American ideology” in the Smithsonian Museums and threatened to withhold funds for exhibitions that “share Americans through race”.
Against that background, the show of the with, which is for the first time fully devoted to designers of color, which focuses on the way black men have used fashion as a tool for self -actualization, revolution and subversion in American history and the Black Diaspora, has received a completely different relevance.
Suddenly the Met, one of the world’s richest and most established museums, started to look like the resistance. And the gala, which has been criticized in recent years as a tone deaf display of privilege and fashion absurdity, is seen as what Brandice Daniel, the founder of Harlem’s Fashion Row, a platform made to support designers of color, called “Allyship”.
Especially since Anna Winttour, the Mastermind of the Gala, a powerful democratic fundraiser and the Chief Content Officer of Condé Nast, said up “The late late show” In 2017, one person she would never invite for the party was Mr. Trump.
The collision of cultural and current events means that the now in the red -hot center of where fashion meets the political economy, “said Tanisha C. Ford, a history professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
“This feels much bigger than just fashion,” said Louis Pisano, a cultural critic and the writer of the newsletter discouraged. “Black style for and in the middle sends a real message.”
“I didn’t think I would see it in my life,” said Sandrine Charles, a publicist and co-founder of the Black in Fashion Council.
That is what the companies sponsored the show and the gala, including Instagram and Louis Vuitton – both are the property of companies that actively turn the Trump administration – run away a precarious cord. It has increased the deployment around what is known as ‘The Party of the Year’. And it has converted a pop culture event into a potential political statement.
So who is going?
This year it is expected that more black designers will be worn on the red carpet of the opening party, more black stylists dress celebrities and more black celebrities are expected than ever in the gala 77-year-old history. Together with Mrs Wintour, the co-presidents of the gala are Rocky, Lewis Hamilton, Colman Domingo and Pharrell Williams as quickly as possible; The honorary goal is LeBron James.
“It is important that we are not outside,” said Mr. Pisano. “Not when black fashion is finally centered in an institution that has excluded it historically.” He was talking about both the show and the gala. “I can be deleted before the conservative return as soon as they pay attention to it, and that is why it is especially important that people show up,” he went on.
Although few details are known about the guest list, which is controlled by Mrs Wintour and is kept secret until the event, there have been some leaks and confirmations.
Mark Zuckerberg, the chairman of Meta, who approaches the president, is not to the gala this year. Adam Mosseri, the Chief Executive of Instagram, who is owned by Meta, will be there, as he has in the past.
Bernard Arnault, the chairman of LVMH, who was in the inauguration of Trump, will be the event as he has had since 1996, but Pietro Beccari, the Chief Executive of Louis Vuitton, an LVMH brand, is present. Jeff Bezos and his Fiancée, Lauren Sánchez, who attended last year, are not expected to be there this year, nor is Mr. Trump’s Right-Hand Man, Elon Musk, Who Attended Three Times Before, most recently in 2022. Michael R. Bloomberg, Who Gave $ 50 Million to Support Ms. Harris In The Last Election, Will Be Attending – And Rumor Has It Ms. Harris, Currently Mulling Her Political Future, Might As Good.
The irony, Mrs Wintour said, is that “the show was never about politics, not in conception, not now.” She added earlier, it was about “self -determination, beauty, creativity and holding a lens for history.”
At the same time, she acknowledged: “With the contributions of black designers and the black community in fashion have an increased meaning in 2025.”
Always loaded for various reasons
In 2021, when Mr Bolton first started thinking about the exhibition, which is based on an academic text from 2009 called “Slaves to Fashion” by Monica L. Miller, a Barnard professor he also employed as co-curator of the show, there were other concerns about how it could be received. In particular whether the costume institute – a department that has never had a black curator, and a part of a museum with its own history of racism – would move an exhibition about the Sartorial recovery of the black male body and the use of fashion as a liberation instrument.
Adding further complications was the fact that Mrs. Wintour, the biggest champion in the department (it was renewed The Anna Winttour costume center in 2014) had confronted in the past with its own accusations of creating a racially insensitive workplace in Vogue. Not to mention the fact that, despite the many dei initiatives after 2020, the fashion world apparently did not think about those promises; Of the more than 15 agreements at the top of large brands this year, none was a designer of color.
Mr Bolton and Mrs Wintour were “self-conscious enough to know that they could not do this without the deep involvement and advice of the community involved,” said Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, a stylist and the former global contributing editor at Large (she left in 2023).
That meant that not only Professor Miller, but also the modern Dandy Iké Udé brought in as a consultant. It meant working with a WHOs who from prominent black creatives: Torkwase Dyson on the show room, Tanda Francis on the Mannequins, Tyler Mitchell on the catalog and Kwame Ontuachi on the menu. It meant having the first “guest committee” since 2019, and keeping specifically Lawyers of the panel In the Apollo Theater in Harlem and the Billie Holiday Theater in Bed-Stuy.
There were also some worries about whether “Hollywood would understand the assignment,” said Professor Ford, referring to worries about how certain guests could dress for the gala. “Would there be people who might have imagined black culture and black clothing wrong?” She went on.
Mrs. Karefa-Johnson has said it more dry. “I just don’t want to see floor length durags or pimp sticks,” she said. (Yet she called the fact that the show takes place in the current climate ‘poetic’.) Jeffrey Banks, a designer whose work is included in the exhibition, called it ‘revolutionary’.
“I have enormous respect for the fact that they have decided to have this conversation and be strong in the light of that risk,” said Téla d’Amore of who Decision War, a brand that can also be seen in the exhibition, said Van de Met.
Yet, in contrast to the Smithsonian, the dependence on the with government funds is negligible. As a private institution, the anti-dei policy of the government is not subject. The museum declaration of diverse You can still see everyone on her website. (A 13-point “Anti -racism and diversity plan” Unveiled in 2020 was included in the strategic plan of the museum in 2022, according to a spokeswoman and is no longer available.)
The most important relationship with the government can be through the federal Art and artifacts compensation programAn initiative that is managed by the National Endowment for the Arts that insures the art that travels to or from American museums, peace of mind for lenders that are protected by the government and become institutional costs. The with its own insurance, but it applies to federal compensation for the largest, most high -quality shows, giving the government some leverage.
That is why many are involved in “Superfine”, not only focused on the Gala evening, with all his stars-lined glamor, or the reception of the exhibition, but on what happens next.
“Does it close completely next year?” asked Maxwell Osborne, the designer of Anonlychild. “Like, you know, we had Obama for two terms, and then we go all the way back.”
