Style -- 5 days ago
The best-dressed men in Met Gala history
The biggest night in fashion has seen some of the biggest outfits in menswear
Words: Zak Maoui
The biggest night in fashion has seen some of the biggest outfits in menswear
Words: Zak Maoui
Ah the Met Gala! The Super Bowl of the fashion world, it has transcended just that and now stands as one of the biggest nights in popular culture. Taking place on the first Monday in May at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it's New York City's overarching event and it brings together the most famous faces in fashion, film, music and art.
It all started in 1948 when the Met Gala was founded by publicist Eleanor Lambert to raise funds for the museum, by way of New York's high society. Today the idea is still the same and the Met Gala heralds the opening of the Costume Institute's latest exhibition.
The dress code for the gala reflects the theme of the year, and in previous years themes have ranged from “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion And The Catholic Imagination” to “Manus x Machina: Fashion In An Age Of Technology”, “Punk: Chaos To Couture” and “China: Through The Looking Glass”. The Met Gala 2024 dress code was "The Garden of Time", which was a fairly loose theme with regards to previous years (see the hyper-specific overarching ode to Karl Lagerfeld in 2023). It was based on the JG Ballard poem, depicting a dystopian future. For 2025 Met Gala, the theme is "Tailored for You", with the event honouring and exploring the fashion narrative and history of the Black dandy. Today the themes are curated by Andrew Bolton, the British head curator of the Anna Wintour Costume Center.
Since 1995 US Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour has chaired the Met Gala and each year she enlists cochairs to help her out, ranging from Rihanna, Tom Ford and Beyoncé to Zendaya, Chris Hemsworth and Amal Clooney. Wintour also oversees the guest list, which is a strict invite-only affair.
And naturally, the Met Gala is one of the best-dressed events in, well, history. Since its inception it has brought out some of the biggest names and with them the biggest outfits.
Below is a run down of some of our favourite looks from the guys on fashion's big night out...
Known for his left-field fashion choices, Bowie kept it simple in 1990 when he rocked up with Iman to the Met Gala, which carried a theme of "Théâtre de la Mode: Fashion Dolls: The Survival of Haute Couture."
Two of the greatest designers to ever live, Karl Lagerfeld and Gianni Versace proved that heading up some of the biggest and competitive fashion houses (Chanel and Fendi, and the namesake Versace respectively) meant there was no love lost.
In 2010 Ralph and his wife attended the gala in honour of the "American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity" exhibition. Knowing a thing or two about dressing American women, Lauren kept to his signature look: a tuxedo jacket and raw denim. So Ralph.
One of the best-dressed men in fashion, the late André Leon Talley's influence goes unmatched. In 1999 he served fashion with a capital F.
No one has more fun with fashion than Marc Jacobs. In 2013 the polka dot-clad designer rocked a pair of Converse (which could be the influence for Timothée Chalamet's 2021 outfit - read on).
A 2014 theme dedicated to forward-thinking 20th-century couturier Charles James allowed Tom Ford to stick to what he loves best: sharply-tailored suits.
Scotsman Alan Cumming arrived at the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute Gala for the opening of ‘Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years' in a fit worthy of his Perthshire roots.
The theme in 2006 was “Anglomania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion,” and the late McQueen nailed it with a co-tartan-clad Sarah Jessica Parker.
It's not often that David Beckham attends the Met Gala, but when he does, he does so in style (and hand-in-hand with Victoria, of course).
2016's "Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology" theme saw the former One Direction member Zayn Malik sport cyber arms.
One of the best themes in the history of the Met Gala was the “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” dress code. Not only was Chadwick Boseman's fit suitable for that year, the priestly get-up was high up there with the best fits of all time.
It was a look that got thousands of men into sheer tops, painted nails and jewellery. In 2019 Harry Styles went hard on the theme in Gucci which was "Camp: Notes on Fashion," drawing inspiration from Susan Sontag's famous essay on the topic
That same year Frank Ocean eschewed the dress code and dressed like your favourite local bouncer (in Prada).
Timothée Chalamet went big on his designers in Rick Owens and Haider Ackermann. But it was really the all American Converse sneakers that made this look, not least because they fit neatly with that year's theme: “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion.”
One for the ages, ASAP Rocky wrapped a blanket around him that was based on an antique quilt that the design house ERL (the eponymous label from Eli Russell Linnetz) thrift store.
British rap artist Stormzy went big in homegrown Burberry, serving an ecclesiastical masterpiece of an outfit in 2022.
Co-chair for last year's Met Gala, Bad Bunny was one of the big names wearing Maison Margiela (alongside Kim Kardashian, Gwendoline Christie and Zendaya). He channeled the count from JG Ballard's poem, and won the battle of the Met steps with aplomb.
Now read up on the theme for the 2025 Met Gala
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