HB Style Squad: The 2025 Met Gala Put Black Fashion On The Main Stage
Source: iOneDigital / iONEDigital
It was an overcast and rainy day in NYC, but that didn't stop Black Hollywood from shining at the 2025 Met Gala. The steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art were adorned with a black and floral print carpet that stretched from the sidewalk to the entrance, guiding the who's who of fashion into the fashion event of the year. HelloBeautiful's editorial director, Shamika Sanders, was on the carpet to talk to the likes of Colman Domingo, A$AP Rocky, Pharrell, Law Roach, Ryan Coogler, Anna Wintour, Jazmine Sullivan, Coco Jones, Whoopi Goldberg, Stevie Wonder, Ava Duvernay, Debbie Allen, and more.
The theme for the 2025 Met Gala was 'Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,' with a spotlight on men's fashion and Black dandyism. It was a moment for fashion killas like Rocky, Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, and other fly guys to show off their sartorial styles.
For many of the fashionable attendees, it was about more than the labels they were wearing; many of them had sentimental accessories that held a significant meaning to them. Underneath Ryan Coogler's Fear Of God suit was a locket with his wife and daughter's picture in it. Colman Domingo wore blue to symbolize the waters that fueled the Transatlantic voyages and the first dandy's love for the hue. Vogue EIC Anna Wintour wore a brooch gifted to her by Karl Lagerfeld.
And when it came to revealing who tailored their sense of style growing up, Issa Rae revealed her mother, mom of five, loved to put on her Sunday's best to do just about anything. Pusha T revealed he was inspired by the rappers of his era, while Steffon Diggs reflected on having no choice but to be fly growing up in DC.
Accessories like du-rags, bedazzled fans, top hats, and grills were big on the carpet. But Rihanna sported the best accessory, revealing her baby bump on the carpet after arriving around 10pm. It was a night of Black excellence that has led to the Costume Institute raising the most money for an exhibition ever. Black people, we did that!
SEE ALSO
HB Style Squad: The 2025 Met Gala Put Black Fashion On The Main Stage was originally published on hellobeautiful.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Beyoncé fans react to dance captain's absence during London concert: 'Where is Amari?'
AI-assisted summary Beyoncé's dance captain, Amari "Monster" Marshall, was absent from her June 7 London concert. Fans questioned Marshall's absence on social media, as she has been a key figure in the "Renaissance" and "Cowboy Carter" tours. Marshall notably mentored Blue Ivy Carter during her stage debut and performed alongside Beyoncé at the 2024 NFL halftime show. Beyoncé Knowles-Carter lit up the stage for the second night of her "Cowboy Carter" tour in London, and while fans were thrilled to see Les Twins dancing once again, many pointed out one familiar face was missing. The Grammy-winning singer took the stage June 7 for her Cowboy Carter and the Rodeo Chitlin' Circuit Tour at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. During the electric performance many fans noticed that Amari "Monster" Marshall, dubbed Beyoncé's dance captain, was not among the performers onstage. One fan wrote, "What happened to Amari," and many others cosigned. Marshall began working with Beyoncé during her iconic 2018 Coachella "Beychella" performances. She eventually assumed the role of dance co-captain on the "Renaissance World Tour," where she played a key part in mentoring Beyoncé's then 11-year-old daughter Blue Ivy during her stage debut. Beyoncé publicly praised Marshall for her guidance with the family dubbing her Blue's 'dance stage momma." She also took the stage with Bey during her 2024 Christmas Day NFL halftime show during the Texans-Ravens game. Marshall has continued performing with Beyoncé as dance captain on the "Cowboy Carter" tour, often sharing photos from various tour stops. However, she appeared to be absent from the stage in London, and fans especially noticed during Saturday night's show. It's not yet clear why Marshall didn't appear onstage or if she'll be making a return soon. Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle. The USA TODAY Network reached out to Beyoncé's team for further information. The concert marked Beyoncé's second of six shows at the stadium. She is set to hit the stage again June 10, 12, 14 and 16, before heading to Paris for three fans know, Beyoncé first debuted her "Cowboy Carter" tour at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on April 28 with 39 songs on the set list. Her shows have been filled with family, fashion, different music genres, and most notably country music and cultural commentary. Of course, Beyoncé first released the 27-track project in March 2024. It has since made history and broken multiple records. As Beyoncé's first country album, she deliberately featured country legends and emerging Black country artists alike. She became the first Black woman to win best country album at the 2025 Grammys and also took home album of the year. The nine-city tour will span the U.S. and Europe with the grand finale taking place in Las Vegas on July 26. Follow Caché McClay, the USA TODAY Network's Beyoncé Knowles-Carter reporter, on Instagram, TikTok and X as @cachemcclay.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Recent graduate Kaitlyn Lubega brings New Mexico national acclaim in poetry
Seeing life inside a Ugandan refugee camp. Facing discrimination as a Black woman. Building the strength to hold one's head high. Kaitlyn Lubega says she channels hardships like these into her poetry performances, transforming the pain of humanity into rhyme and cadence. The effort paid off in early May when Lubega, a recent graduate of United World College-USA in Montezuma, earned third place in the Poetry Out Loud National Finals in Washington. She competed against 54 others from across the United States. It was her second time representing New Mexico in the national competition, after winning both the 2024 and 2025 state championships. But for her second and higher-placing national performance, she enjoyed herself more and felt a deeper connection to the experiences that inform her performance, she said. Channeling pain into poetry Lubega, 18, was born in the United Kingdom and raised in New Jersey. A daughter of Ugandan immigrants, she faced both racism and sexism in a small community of people who didn't look like her. 'I viewed myself as lesser growing up, and I never liked the fact that I was Ugandan for the longest time in my life,' she said by phone from her New Jersey home. The lessons of her parents, Mohammed and Florence, and the guidance of her Auntie Tina, kept her afloat through tough times as a kid, she said. ' I think especially those strong women,' she said. 'Being the strong women that they were unapologetically, not destructively, but very peacefully and gracefully themselves.' They dressed, spoke and wore their hair the way they wanted, Lubega said, which 'at a young age made me feel less ashamed,' and gave her confidence to exist in a space where she 'didn't really feel appreciated.' There was a positive side to her difficult upbringing. She won best-in-grade year after year in her school's poetry competition, sparking a love of both writing and performing poetry. Her move to New Mexico to attend United World College gave her the space to look back and contextualize her life experiences instead of seeing them 'as a passerby,' she said. New Mexico's serenity helped her become reflective, and the school's method of instruction encouraged her to find herself through 'the complexity of our everyday lived experiences,' she said. Back in Uganda Lubega visits Uganda every other summer, and before her return last year, she got a class assignment as part of her International Baccalaureate in global politics: She would visit a refugee camp, engage with the community and write a report on the experience. At Palabek Refugee Settlement in northern Uganda and its companion school, Lugeba interviewed people. It affected her more deeply than most assignments, in part because she was treated better than locals just because she was from the United States. That treatment reminded her of the 'privilege' she said those from the United States are afforded. 'I love the country,' she said. 'But it was so difficult to see some of the problems and the recurring cycles that seem to never leave Uganda in some way.' Uganda has more refugees than any other African country, according to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants nonprofit. And those refugees are dealing with overpopulation and food insecurity driven by surging conflicts in neighboring countries like South Sudan. Those conditions became worse after President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January that froze nearly $2 billion for international humanitarian programs run by the U.S. Agency for International Development. The agency has since been further dismantled through efforts led by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The refugee camp Lubega visited and surrounding host communities abruptly lost $15 million in funds to provide food aid and services for more than 50,000 people. A federal district court has since ordered the Trump administration to resume disbursing those funds, but the money has been slow to return. Poetry Out Loud Contestants Contestants in the 2025 Poetry Out Loud National Championship, held May 5-7 in Washington. Standing tall The refugee camp experience informed Lubega's choice of poems to perform for the Poetry Out Loud competition. It also impacted her performance, especially when she recited 'I'm the People, the Mob,' by Carl Sandburg, a piece from the perspective of the battered and unseen movers of history. 'In that poem,' she said, 'I sort of channeled that pain and that hurt that I see certain people face.' Transforming profound suffering into a performance that wows isn't easy. But it wasn't overbearing for Lubega, who said she felt confident and had fun this time around. 'I had a lot more poise in just everything,' she said. 'I'm very happy that I was able to find that and channel that energy into a positive way and do better in the competition this year.' She left Washington with national recognition, a $5,000 third-place purse and an outpouring of support from her elders and siblings. Now, after New Mexico, she's returning to the Northeast to attend Connecticut College, a small liberal arts college in New London, Conn. There, she's set to study political science with a minor in African studies and a pathway in communications, rhetoric and media. But she won't soon forget New Mexico, she said. Nor will she forget the lessons and rituals that have guided her since childhood, including her mother's advice to stand tall. 'So I get up before I go on stage. I stand as tall and as great-postured as I can — and obviously everything in me is jittering — but I usually, right before they call my name, I take a breath, I pray, and I say, 'OK, let's lock in and let's go kill this.' '
Forbes
3 hours ago
- Forbes
Vampire Thriller ‘Sinners' Already Stakes Top Spot On Streaming Charts
Michael B Jordan in "Sinners." Warner Bros. Pictures Sinners — Ryan Coogler's blockbuster horror thriller starring Michael B. Jordan — is already a big hit on digital streaming. Written and directed by Coogler, Sinners opened in theaters on April 18. The logline for Sinners reads, 'Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.' Coogler's Black Panther and Creed movie series collaborator Jordan stars in Sinners as twin brothers, Smoke and Stack. Rated R, Sinners also stars Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Jack O'Connell, Wumni Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Omar Miller and Delroy Lindo. Produced by Warner Bros., Sinners premiered on digital streaming via premium video on demand last Tuesday on such platforms as Apple TV, Fandango at Home, Movies Anywhere, Prime Video and YouTube. As of Sunday, Sinners is already the No. 1 top seller on Prime Video's streaming charts, ahead of Jack Black and Jason Momoa's A Minecraft Movie, which is another Warner Bros. release. Figures for the actual number of purchases or rentals on the Prime Video charts, however, are not available. Also as of this publication, Sinners is in the top spot of Fandango at Home's Top 200 chart and is trending at No. 1 on Movies Anywhere. While Sinners is available on digital streaming, the film is still attracting audiences in theaters. Sinners is projected by Deadline to earn $2.8 million from 1,518 theaters through Sunday, which will boost the film's domestic gross to $272.5 million in its eighth week of release. Combined with the film's $82.6 million in international ticket sales, Sinners has a worldwide tally of $353.1 million to date against a $90 million production budget before prints and advertising costs, per The Numbers. While Sinners has become a blockbuster hit, Ryan Coogler said in a recent interview with Ebony Magazine that he's never given thought to making a sequel to the film. 'I've been in a space of making franchise films for a bit, so I wanted to get away from that,' Coogler told Ebony. 'I was looking forward to working on a film that felt original and personal to me and had an appetite for delivering something to audiences that was original and unique.' Instead, Coogler added, he 'wanted the movie to feel like a full meal: your appetizers, starters, entrees and desserts, I wanted all of it there. 'I wanted it to be a holistic and finished thing. That was how I was asked all about it,' Coogler explained to Ebony. 'That was always my intention.' Sinners, starring Michael B. Jordan, is still playing in theaters and available for purchase or rent on PVOD.
