Black Dandy, Time Queen: Janelle Monáe Brought the Revolution to the Met
Scoop
Black Dandy, Time Queen: Janelle Monáe Introduced the Revolution to the Met
Janelle Monáe stepped into the 2025 Met Gala with a commanding Thom Browne look, clock monocle and all, championing Black magnificence and self-expression.
Printed
1 day ago
on
We are quick of words to list the outfit Janelle Monáe wore to the Met Gala closing evening. Most definitely we are in a position to starting up with profound, stupefying, peerless—because in truth, nothing else came shut.
Janelle raised the bar on the 2025 Met Gala, embracing this year’s theme, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Fashion”, and the robe code, “Tailored for You”, with characteristic flair. She arrived on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in a two-half Thom Browne look that done with phantasm and time. The overcoat, lined in vertical white stripes, featured a trompe l’oeil tie, lapel and even a briefcase, embroidered in duchess silk and grosgrain ribbon. Below it used to be a full-measurement skirt swimsuit reduce again with engrossing traces and an historic-college edge.
On her head used to be a Magritte-fashion bowler hat with a timepiece-monocle hybrid extending from the brim—segment scrutinize, segment spectacle, and fully unforgettable. As she walked the carpet, costume vogue designer Paul Tazewell helped her put off the coat to provide an explanation for a re-examination: a deconstructed sport coat and skirt, split dapper down the heart. The left side used to be red wool crepe with white detailing; the lawful side, murky-and-white pinstripes.
“I’ve tried to deconstruct programs for a couple of years through my work, through my art and activism,” Monáe told The New York Cases. “I’d like to deconstruct respectability politics round suiting and round how Black of us can provide an explanation for up in the arena. I needed to provide an explanation for that we catch to resolve who we are.”
This year’s Met Gala marks the Costume Institute’s first exhibition dedicated fully to Black designers, and the first in over twenty years to focus on menswear. It’s also a loving tribute to Black dandyism.
Monáe also served on this year’s Met Gala host committee, joining cultural icons like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ayo Edebiri, Usher, André 3000, Doechii, and more.
Gaze more seems beneath
