Some people skirt around the Met Gala theme. Others, like Lewis Hamilton, shine on through. Because on the Met Gala 2025 red carpet, his fit did its homework and passed with flying colors on a night that demands full attention to detail.
As an annual fundraiser for the Costume Institute wing at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Met Gala has become a red carpet event like no other. Where awards ceremonies and film premieres often fall in line with fashion trends at large (slim-cut suits, or abstract black tie, or big iced out brooches and so on), the Met Gala is like the most haute costume party ever created. And for guests to get it right—as in, right by fashion’s armchair pundits, all of whom watch the night with the intensity of an England fan during the Euros—they have to go big, and by the dress code.
Theo Wargo
That’s where Lewis Hamilton won. The theme of the Met Gala 2025 is ‘Tailored For You’ to chime with the Costume Institute’s upcoming exhibition, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style. It’s designed to be a celebration of Black designers, of the dandy’s influence on fashion, of figures that have shaped the culture. His fit, a highly decorated tailcoat in immaculate silk, was amped up with embroidery, with a brooch, with a beret, with glitzy buckled shoes from the reigning emperor of gilded footwear, Manolo Blahnik. It was pure, unadulterated dandy.
Better yet, it was designed by Wales Bonner. The London-based designer has long riffed on Afro-Atlantic sensibilities, creating clothes that celebrate Black culture and spaces. Her spring-summer ’21 collab with Adidas was all about the heritage of dancehalls. As Pitti Uomo’s guest designer in 2022, Bonner staged the show at the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, once the home of the so-called Black Prince of Florence who is largely thought to be the first Black head of state in Western Europe. Nobody fits the brief better than Bonner. Plus, fashion nerds love her.
Oh, and we forgot to mention: Hamilton is a co-chair for this year’s event, meaning he’s at the top of the billing, and helping out with hosting duties—and the man set the bar very, very high.