Whether its the $75,000 tickets, the Anna Wintour-controlled guest list, or the unusual fashion choices, the annual Met Gala is never without controversy. But the controversy seems to be dialed up this year due to a racially charged theme and subprime optics.
The 2025 Met Gala theme and accompanying exhibit is called “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” and draws from Monica L. Miller’s 2009 book on “black dandyism” entitled Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity.
The New York Times has dubbed it “the most politically charged Met Gala in years,” and, on Monday’s show, Megyn was joined by Andrew Klavan, author of The Kingdom of Cain, to discuss the tone-deafness of the event and what it says about culture today.
The Theme
Billed as fashion’s biggest night, the Met Gala serves as the annual fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. It takes place on the first Monday in May and is attended by a who’s who of stars handpicked by Wintour, Vogue’s editor in chief.
The dress code for the evening takes its cue from the theme of the corresponding exhibit, which, in 2025, means black male style. According to Vogue, “black dandyism” dates back to the eighteenth century and refers to “a fashion revolution” and “movement” where sartorially inclined black men used their style as a means of protest and personal expression.
As such, Vogue said “the exhibition will explore how dandyism in black culture is not just a matter of dress, but an assertion of autonomy, beauty, and power in the face of a world that continues to attempt to restrict black expression.”
Wintour is white, as is lead curator Andrew Bolton, but the evening is being co-chaired by Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, A$AP Rocky, Pharrell Williams, and honorary chair LeBron James. The Times reported there were also advanced panel discussions featuring black creatives and attended by host committee members like the WNBA’s Angel Reese at the Apollo Theater in Harlem and Billie Holiday Theater in Bed-Stuy.
According to the Times, the exhibit is the culmination of five years of work from Bolton to diversify the Costume Institute’s holdings and will mark the first time such a presentation is entirely devoted to designers of color.
The Backlash
Megyn called the theme “hyper-pandering” on Wintour’s part. “The New York Times wants us to know they went to the Apollo Theater to plan tonight’s Met Gala… as they tried to pay homage to black fashion because I will submit to you that they have been embarrassed by the year after year after year press coverage of how disgustingly excessive… this showing of wealth is,” she explained. “So, now they have decided to try to get over this reputation of Anna Wintour being America’s biggest snob and this thing being the most over-the-top, elitist, evil event by pandering to blacks.”
“Out of date,” “old-fashioned,” “untoward,” and “condescending” are just a few of the words Klavan used to describe the “absolute display of pure privilege and wealth” from the event and theme. “It is really fascinating to watch a failed elite – who has now been rejected by the American public in the last election and basically declared irrelevant – fighting very hard to remain at the top by doing the same things they have been doing for the last 30 years,” he noted. “There is absolutely no taking stock, absolutely no looking in the mirror, absolutely no thinking… ‘maybe we have gone down a wrong path.'”
“They can’t do any of that because their entire power structure is built… on displays of virtue,” he continued. “And I think I would find it sad if I didn’t find it so hilarious to watch them kind of slowly swirling down the drain.”
‘Disgusting Dechauchery’
Klavan said the gala is giving “Rome just before it collapsed” vibes, which Megyn agreed is an apt description. As she has shared, she and her husband Doug accepted invitations to attend the Met Gala in 2016 and 2017 where they saw things they can’t unsee.
“I witnessed with my own eyes dry humping… [and] smoking in The Met bathrooms with cigarettes,” she recalled. “Another very famous pair from Wall Street was snorting coke, which my husband Doug saw with his own eyes in the men’s room.”
The “disgusting debauchery,” she said, “makes a mockery” of an institution that houses some of the world’s finest art, and Megyn had a message for those attending this year: “You got in here because Anna Wintour thought somebody might click to see your half-naked body on her red carpet, but have some respect for the actual great works of art that are in this place. You don’t understand true beauty and true culture… It is absolutely disgusting.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Klavan by tuning in to episode 1,064 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.