Singer Pharrell Williams and Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton will co-chair the next gala at the Metropolitan Museum of New York (Met) that will focus on the history of black diaspora fashion, the prestigious institution announced today at a press conference.
Five years after the great wave of anti-racist protests of the Black Lives Matter movement, which led many American cultural institutions to rethink their representation of diversity, the May 2025 gala will also be co-chaired by rapper ASAP Rocky, actor Colman Domingo and, like every year, the high priestess of fashion and director of Vogue magazine, Anna Wintour.
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American basketball legend LeBron James has been announced as honorary president.
According to the Met, black dandyism refers to a style of dress first imposed on slaves in 18th-century Europe, and its reappropriations throughout fashion history.
This theme will also be central to the major exhibition at the Costume Institute, the textile arts department of the Metropolitan Museum, which normally opens to coincide with the gala, on the first Monday in May.
Williams was present at the museum for the announcement, along with British driver Hamilton. The musician, producer and now creative director of Louis Vuitton, stressed the importance of celebrating cultures born of slavery.
“We are the survivors of perhaps the worst trial ever suffered by a group of human beings, and we have not only survived, but we have carried music, culture, beauty and a universal language across an ocean and four centuries,” he said during his speech.