PHARRELL WILLIAMS AND SUPERFINE: TAILORING BLACK STYLE - A CREATIVE SYMBIOSIS
words NIA TOPALOVA
As the co-chair of this year’s Met Gala, themed “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style”, Pharrell Williams brought special emphasis on the historical impacts and cultural influences of Black cultures and subcultures on our present-day elevation of clothing. During the Costume Institute’s Spring 2025 exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Men’s Creative Director channeled the spirit of dandyism, celebrating sartorialism and exceptional craftsmanship, introduced with his debut Men’s collection for Spring-Summer 2024.
As the sponsor of Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, Louis Vuitton honours the legacy of Virgil Abloh and the way he devoted his platform to represent Black identities and elevate the Afro-diasporic canon of art. The House’s looks for the 2025 Met Gala exemplify this spirit, preserving the classic language of men’s tailoring through sculpted jackets and flared trousers, infused with dandy references from the eighteenth-century, the Jazz Age, the 1970s and 80s and hip-hop culture.
A central theme in Williams’s collections has always been one of humanity, community, and opportunity. At the Met Gala last night, he shared that the working class is his greatest inspiration: “Tonight, we celebrate Black people.” He spoke about how Black men in the working class do the hard labor, but when it’s time to get fresh, they show up dandy and sharp. “I’m inspired by the working class,” he said, “because that’s where I come from.”
Pharrel Williams wore his own design to the fashion’s most celebrated night: a double-breasted, cropped blazer hand-crafted entirely in interlaced white pearls, flared trousers tailored in fine wool, and a Speedy P9 Bandoulière 20 evening bag structured by hand in burgundy crocodile leather with an aged gold metal Millionaire chain.
