This combination of photos show Anna Wintour, from top left, Pharrell Williams, Lewis Hamilton, Colman Domingo, from bottom left, A$AP Rocky, who will serve as co-chairs, and LeBron James, who will serve as honorary chair for the 2025 Met Gala. (AP Photo)2025-05-05T04:00:06Z NEW YORK (AP) Pharrell Williams has high hopes for the Met Gala, the first to focus exclusively on Black designers, and the first in more than 20 years to have a menswear theme.I want it to feel like the most epic night of power, a reflection of Black resiliency in a world that continues to be colonized, by which I mean policies and legislation that are nothing short of that, he recently told Vogue.Its our turn.Indeed. And welcome to the first Monday in May.How to watch the 2025 Met GalaVogue will livestream the gala starting at 6 p.m. Eastern on Vogue.com, its YouTube channel and across its other digital platforms. Teyana Taylor, La La Anthony and Ego Nwodim will host the stream. Emma Chamberlain will also do interviews on the carpet.The Associated Press will livestream celebrity departures from the Mark Hotel beginning at 5 p.m. Eastern and will stream the gala carpet on delay beginning at 6:30 p.m. The feeds will be available on YouTube and APNews.com.E! will begin live coverage at 6 p.m. on TV. The livestream will be available on Peacock, E! Online and YouTube, along with the networks other social media feeds. Whos hosting the 2025 Met Gala?This year, the fundraising gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is hosted by a group of Black male celebrities, including Williams, the musical artist and Louis Vuitton menswear director, and Lewis Hamilton, Colman Domingo, and A$AP Rocky, with NBA superstar LeBron James as honorary chair. Theyre joined by Vogues Anna Wintour, the mastermind behind the gala, considered the years biggest and starriest party.Also guaranteed to show up is a second tier of hosts from a variety of worlds: athletes Simone Biles and husband Jonathan Owens; Angel Reese and ShaCarri Richardson; filmmakers Spike Lee, Tonya Lewis Lee and Regina King; actors Ayo Edebiri, Audra McDonald and Jeremy Pope; musicians Doechii, Usher, Tyla, Janelle Mone and Andr 3000; author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; artists Jordan Casteel, Rashid Johnson and Kara Walker; playwrights Jeremy O. Harris and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins; and fashion figures Grace Wales Bonner, Edward Enninful, Dapper Dan and Olivier Rousteing.The gala raises the bulk of the curation budget for the museums Costume Institute. This years Met Gala dress code is...Its more like a firm suggestion. From Wintour. This year, its about tailoring and suiting as interpreted through the history and meaning of Black dandyism across the Atlantic diaspora. The theme is inspired by the annual spring exhibition, which this year is based in large part on Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, a book written by Monica L. Miller. She is guest curator of the exhibit.Historical manifestations of dandyism range from absolute precision in dress and tailoring to flamboyance and fabulousness in dress and style, Miller writes in the exhibit catalog. Whether a dandy is subtle or spectacular, we recognize and respect the deliberateness of the dress, the self-conscious display, the reach for tailored perfection, and the sometimes subversive self-expression. How the dress code goes, in terms of taste and style, is anyones guess. Wintour has a hand in virtually all things gala, so the presumption is things cant go too far off the rails. She recently knocked down the rumor that she approves all looks, telling Good Morning America shell weigh in if asked. The exhibit, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, draws on other sources beyond Millers book. Its organized into 12 sections. Each symbolizes a characteristic of dandy style as defined by Zora Neale Hurston in her 1934 essay, Characteristics of Negro Expression.Among them: ownership, presence, distinction, disguise, freedom, respectability and heritage. Presumably, for gala guests who do deep-dive research (or have stylists to do it), some of these factors will play out on the museum steps that serve as the events red carpet.Who else is going to show up?The guest list amounts to about 450 high-profile people from tech, sports, art, entertainment and more. The mix, Williams said, is a must.Its so important to me to have successful Black and brown people of every stripe in the room: not just athletes and actors and actresses, entertainers, but also authors, architects, folks from the fintech world, he told Vogue. Weve got to invest in each other. Weve got to connect with each other, because its going to take everybody to coalesce the force of Black and brown genius into one strong, reliable force.___For full coverage of the Met Gala, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/met-gala LEANNE ITALIE Italies work spans the lifestyles and entertainment space, from fashion and family to film, music and theater. She is based in New York and has worked across the United States for The Associated Press. twitter instagram facebook mailto