Met Gala 2025 Live Updates: Teyana Taylor’s crimson power suit is the best lesson in black dandyism

If this year’s Met Gala theme — ‘Superfine: Tailoring Black Style’ — demanded personal narratives dressed in precision-cut suiting, Teyana Taylor turned up with a thesis. The artist, style shapeshifter and unapologetic Harlem native arrived in a custom Marc Jacobs look that fused Savile Row structure with Southern Black church theatrics. It was dramatic. It was defiant. And it was, hands down, the evening’s most eloquent ode to Black dandyism.

Co-designed by Ruth E. Carter, the look is a masterclass in tailoring, symbolism, and storytelling

Teyana’s look wasn’t just clothes — it was coded language. The grey pinstriped three-piece suit, sharpened with a near-floor-length coat and commanding shoulder pads, served as the structural foundation. Over it, a deep oxblood cloak in pleated satin and velvet swept down like a royal decree. The cloak’s hem read ‘Harlem Rose’, a direct reference to her 2018 track Rose in Harlem.

Designed in collaboration with Oscar-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter — best known for Black Panther and Coming 2 America — the ensemble channelled Ruth’s costume-making genius: fashion that doesn’t just decorate but declares. The durag hidden beneath a velvet feathered hat, the crimson gloves, cane, and towering platform boots all whispered to eras of resistance and regality — from Zoot Suit swagger to Sunday best sharpness.

Jewellery by David Yurman added a luxe glint to the ensemble, but it’s the silhouette that did all the shouting. At once androgynous and ultra-feminine, the look rode the line between masculinity and glamour with confidence. This wasn’t performative gender-play — it was historic Black tailoring, repurposed and rewritten in Taylor’s image. In an evening where tailoring reigned, Teyana Taylor didn’t just wear a suit. She wore a story. And she told it with every step across that embroidered blue Sabyasachi carpet, Harlem roots showing with pride.