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Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Keke Palmer on Using ‘Fashion as a Tool for Activism,' Her 2025 Met Gala Look and American Express Partnership
Keke Palmer sees fashion as a means to send a message. The actress and entrepreneur was inspired by activists from the past for her 2025 Met Gala look — a custom design courtesy of Vera Wang, paying homage to one of classic Hollywood's trailblazers: Dorothy Dandridge. 'When you're working on something like the Met Gala, it's all about collaborating on how everybody is interpreting the theme and, for me, when I'm thinking about Black Dandyism, I'm thinking about fashion as a tool for activism, especially when it comes to Black Americans,' Palmer told WWD, following Monday's event. More from WWD Keke Palmer Is Rolling With the Punches and Leaning Into Comedy Keke Palmer Channels Vampy Winter Glam in Semi-sheer Maroon Google Searches and Pantone Look Ahead to Met Gala-inspired Colors and Trends: From Zendaya's Hat to Savannah James in Windsor Wine The 'One of Them Days' star was intentional with her look, considering how fashion is used 'as a way to present and get into doors and break those negative stereotypes. Those are the kinds of things that Dorothy Dandridge did; those are the kinds of things that Coretta Scott King did and the list goes on,' Palmer said. Palmer observed that while 'you can brush up against' respectability politics as they relate to fashion and presentation, they can also be an instrument for transformation. 'The idea of how you step into a room, how it can change how you are perceived, is a really cool insight to play with,' she said. Thinking back to Monday's Met Gala, Palmer embraced the unique experience. 'Artistry, perspective, point of view, how it brings people together — I think it's really cool. Every Met [Gala] is a good time, and this one was just as good.' Off the red carpet, Palmer continues to expand her business. She founded KeyTV, a digital network focused on diverse creators, in 2022. She also cofounded Saving Our Cinderellas, a program within the Saving Our Daughters organization, in 2014, and her own record label, Big Bosses ENT, in 2017. With her ongoing business ventures, the actress recently partnered with American Express' Business Platinum Card to support her through travel and keep track of her finances. 'I was excited to team up with them and highlight the Business Platinum Card's benefits because they're truly designed to elevate business and travel, which is something that I'm always doing,' she said. 'The main thing that I love is that I can also get lounge access through the American Express global lounge collection with my business platinum card,' she said. Palmer is set to star in forthcoming projects like 'The Pickup' alongside Oscar nominee Eddie Murphy and more. Despite her busy schedule, the actress said she will 'stay focused,' balancing professional and personal commitments. 'The human body sometimes wants to go fight or flight, but if we can push past that and embrace the magnitude of whatever intensity comes our way personally, professionally, relationally, then we have the opportunity to be transformed,' she said. 'I think that's something I've learned as I've continued to grow. I don't want to turn away from the opportunity to expand and to evolve. Continue to push through.' View Gallery Launch Gallery: Best Moments of the Met Gala 2025: Photos Best of WWD Celebrities Wearing Zara: From Melania Trump's Controversial Coat to Kate Middleton's Blazer Collection [PHOTOS] The Stories Behind Audrey Hepburn's Wedding Dresses and What Happened to the Gown That Never Made It Down the Aisle La La Anthony's Style Through the Years: Met Gala Looks, MTV Days and More Photos
Black America Web
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Black America Web
We Can Thank Dr. Monica L. Miller For 2025's Met Gala Theme
Black America Web Featured Video CLOSE Source: Mike Coppola/MG25 / Getty When Dr. Monica L. Miller completed her thesis on Black Dandyism as a graduate student at Harvard, it set forth a chain of events that would go on to influence fashion on a grand scale. Thanks to Dr. Miller, we witnessed the Blackest Met Gala yet. The research for her thesis evolved into two books: Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity (2009) and the upcoming Superfine: Tailoring Black Style (2025), which became the blueprint for this year's Met Gala. The biggest fashion event of the year was themed 'Superfine: Tailoring Black Style' and raised $31 million for the Costume Institute. And even more important, put Black dandyism on display for the world to see. Dr. Miller's passion for learning and teaching is admirable. Currently, she is the Professor of Africana Studies and Chair of the Africana Studies Department. Her educational career is an example of how fashion, arts, entertainment, and education can intersect. As the guest curator for this year's Met Gala, she was instrumental in contextualizing the theme while carrying the torch for authors, educators, and fashion history enthusiasts. She continues to encourage other students to follow in her footsteps. She told host Lala Anthony during a Vogue livestream. 'I've never had such a big classroom,' referring to the growing interest in studies. She continues to spread her knowledge of Black history, educating everyone she encounters, from the students in her class to Vogue host La La Anthony. 'Thank you for educating me,' the actress told Dr. Miller during the same stream. Learning From Dr. Monica L. Miller Source: Arturo Holmes/MG25 / Getty The Met Gala is about more than dressing up, it helps fund the Costume Institute, which then helps provide educational resources for brilliant minds like Dr. Miller. Education can be a vehicle to achieving greatness. Dr. Miller's work spotlighted Black Dandyism during a time when civil liberties are being violated and an administration hell bent on smothering the cultural identity. Art imitates life, and like the Black Dandies using fashion to reclaim their identities, we're standing strong as a collective. A teenage fan of The White Lotus whose never heard of Dapper Dan will understand how he expanded the idea of luxury at his Harlem atelier thanks to this exhibition. A privileged person may discover a Black designer like Brandon Blackwood, Chuks Collins, or Hanifa because she one day turned a brush with a cliff note into an indelible body of work. As media literacy is at an all-time low and pathways to higher learning are under attack, we should remember people like Dr. Monica L. Miller, who quietly inspire us to think harder and reach higher. DON'T MISS: Don't Erase Blackness At The Met Gala Because It Didn't Show Up How You Thought It Should Law Roach's Most Memorable Met Gala Moments SEE ALSO We Can Thank Dr. Monica L. Miller For 2025's Met Gala Theme was originally published on
Hindustan Times
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Diljit Dosanjh beats Zendaya and Rihanna to top Best Dressed poll at Met Gala 2025; Shah Rukh Khan not on list
Diljit Dosanjh made history when he debuted at this years Met Gala and walked the stairs of metropolitan museum of Art in New York. The singer-actor made heads turns with his Maharaja inspired look, designed by Prabal Gurung. Now, Diljit has been voted the Best dressed celeb at the world's biggest fashion event in a poll by Vogue, beating fashionistas like Zendaya and Rihanna. (Also read: Diljit Dosanjh's review of 'beautiful, very cute' breakfast post Met Gala will leave you in splits. Watch) The fashion magazine came out with its Best Dressed list as voted by the fans. A poll was conducted where the readers were asked to choose their favourite look from 307 different outfits from the red carpet. The Punjabi singer-actor, who represented Punjabi culture in a Prabal Gurung Sherwani, beat all the others to emerge as the Best Dressed. Diljit paid a homage to Maharaja Bhupinder Singh at Met Gala by wearing bespoke ivory sherwani, turban and exquisite jewellery which included an elaborate necklace. The outfit also had a ceremonial sword and a cape with the map of Punjab with Gurmukhi script. Diljit posted his look on Instagram and wrote, 'MAIN HOON ਪੰਜਾਬ 😇🙏🏽 #metgala. Inspired by The Theme of Black Dandyism, I Bring My Turban, My Culture & My Mother Tongue ' ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ' to The MET GALA. Thank You So Much Dear @prabalgurung @theannawintour @cartier @golecha_jewels @abhilashatd' A post shared by DILJIT DOSANJH (@diljitdosanjh) The second best on the list was South Korean rapper-singer S Coups who wore a gray Boss suit taking inspiration from Korean hanbok jacket. Diljit and Coups were followed by Hollywood star Zendaya who wore a Louis Vuitton suit, singer Teyana Taylor in Ruth E Carter outfit and popstar Rihanna in Marc Jacobs design. Next on the list were, Nicki Minaj in Thom Browne outfit, Shakira in Prabal Gurang design and Lewis Hamilton in Grace Wales Bonner. They were followed by Lisa in Louis Vuitton, and Sabrina Carpenter in Louis Vuitton. Shah Rukh Khan, who also made his debut at this year Met Gala, could not make it to the list.
The Guardian
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Digested week: Anti-Trumpism at the Met Gala – and some amazing gnashers
More by happenstance than planning, perhaps, the Met Gala, which took place in New York on Monday night, struck a note that seemed stridently to oppose Donald Trump. The theme of the evening, devised to advertise the Costume Institute's new exhibition, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, was Black dandyism – an apparently defiant push back against Trump's executive order removing initiatives to promote, 'so called 'under-represented groups'.' Even if the theme had been planned before Trump's re-election, it was surely great to see. It was also a rare example of politics coinciding with the $75,000-a-head fundraiser in a way that wasn't completely tone deaf. The memory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez using the Met Gala to advertise the slogan 'Tax the Rich' – and in the process comprehensively lose control of her message – probably contributed to Kamala Harris's decision on Monday to slip in through a side door rather than risk the red carpet. (Harris was dressed in a black and white silk gown by Ib Kamara, while Doug Emhoff, her husband, wore a tux by Brunello Cucinelli). Other stand outs of the evening: Colman Domingo's fabulous floor length cape by Valentino; Madonna's white suit and cigar (her first time at the Met Gala in seven years and the 67-year-old's still got it); and Janelle Monáe and Whoopi Goldberg splendid in Thom Browne. Meanwhile Anna Wintour, the organiser and host, enjoyed what appears to be her annual public outing without sunglasses while flamboyantly performing her 2020 resolution – made in the face of accusations of racial insensitivity at Vogue – that she is 'committed to doing the work.' I say this with love (not really): what's up with Steve Carell's gnashers? The actor appears in Tina Fey and Tracey Wigfield's new eight part Netflix comedy, The Four Seasons, in which three couples spend a year going on holiday with each other to talk about the health of their marriages and nothing else. The show is long, boring, and apparently devised by people who haven't had even the most glancing interaction with the world everyone else inhabits for a very long time – but it's still Tina Fey, which means that roughly every seven minutes there's a throwaway line that is funnier than anything you'll find in a much better show. Meanwhile the real star of the show is Carell's amazing veneers, which, like the old Victoria Wood joke about Deidre Barlow's perm getting shorter and tighter with each episode of Coronation Street ('Come home, Ken, it's up to me glasses!') seem to get more prominent with each public appearance. They draw one's attention to Carell's mouth in a way at this point in the 62-year-old actor's career, that is deserving of their own credit. Barry Diller, the businessman and media mogul who has been married to Diane von Furstenburg for 24 years, makes the brave decision at the age of 83 to come out as what his generation would call an 'openly gay man'. It's a reveal he has chosen to make in his forthcoming memoir, Who Knew, in which he writes about the suffering he went through while hiding his sexuality for fear that it would stunt 'any chance of my having a fulfilling personal life,' a sense of powerlessness that often overwhelmed him. (Diller's been a billionaire since the 1990s). Who knows what Diller's deal with Von Furstenburg really is, but I can tell you that sublimating his sexuality for the social capital of being 'normal' isn't something a lot of gays, including this one, are particularly fond of, although of course everyone is on their own unique journey etc. You see it a lot in born again lesbians who have their kids with men for reasons of social and financial expediency, then pop out the other side wanting a medal, and in men who make the brave decision to acknowledge the truth about their lives, supportive wives rictus-faced by their sides. At least Diller, in excerpts from the book, seems to acknowledge that aspects of his conduct over the years have constituted the 'opposite of courage,' so well done, OK, whatever. Speaking of fancy gents: conclave! You go for years without saying the word 'conclave' and then it's the only word you use for a solid two weeks. Politico reports that before the election of a new pope on Thursday, some of the 133 cardinals participating in the conclave – many for the first time – sneaked a look at the 2024 movie starring Ralph Fiennes as an ambitious cardinal running a conclave as a primer on how the process might go. Meanwhile the elevation of the cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as the first American pope throws up certain delicious possibilities. Pope Leo XIV, as he will be known, made his address on Thursday in Spanish and what Channel 4 news called 'American accented' Italian – bit rude, but anyway notably no English. Still, American he is, from the South Side of Chicago, prompting the New York Times to ask the vital question – White Sox or Chicago Cubs? – and the Free Press to speculate, happily, that we now live in a world in which the pope 'might have a Costco membership'. The news that Brits apparently apologise up to nine times a day is, sorry, a classic example of under-reporting. The findings, from a survey by Interflora, found that 90% of the 2,000 respondents admitted to routinely apologising for things that weren't their fault, resulting in an annual apology-count of 3,285 a year. Triggers included squeezing past someone in a queue, summoning help at the self-check out, and sneezing, which is all well and good but overlooks the standard preface made by any British person embarking on a statement, 'Um, sorry', or the hair trigger need to panic apologise to inanimate objects you may have bumped into.
Vogue
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Vogue
Maluma's Willy Chavarria-Designed Zoot Suit Honored Pachuco Culture at the 2025 Met Gala
For the 2025 Met Gala, Maluma harnessed his moment on the steps of the Met to celebrate Colombian pride. It was a night of glamour, but also of reflection on how fashion has the power to directly influence social and cultural change. Speaking to the 'Superfine: Tailoring Black Style' exhibition and the honoring of Black dandyism, the best looks of the evening revelled in exquisite tailoring and personal storytelling. Under the 'Tailored For You' dress code, the figure of the dandy was honored in a multitude of ways—fellow Colombian J Balvin, for example, wore a brilliantly pink double-peak lapel suit. Maluma found his own dandy story in the mid-1940s, between the Chicano culture and the Pachucos who found their distinct sense of style as a way to occupy space. Maluma arrived dressed in a brocade, mightnight blue and emerald green zoot suit by Mexican-American designer Willy Chavarria, who accompanied the singer on the red carpet. (Chavarria also wore a creamy pastel pink suit with sculptural lapels. 'Willy is a genius, he knows how to take classic styles and make them feel brand new, and we knew he would capture this theme perfectly,' Stephanie Escobar, Maluma's stylist, tells Vogue. When they considered who could dress him, no one made more sense than Willy Chavarría. 'The look is inspired by the elegance of the pachuco style, which has deep roots in Chicano and Latinx fashion. It integrates naturally with the spirit of Black dandyism, where impeccable tailoring is a form of identity, resilience and pride. It was important that the styling honored both narratives.' Amid the Met Gala preparations, Maluma continued to dominate on his tour, and he stayed committed to collaborating with Chavarria and his team on a stellar look. 'Willy's details were impeccable, from the fabrics to the watch chain,' continues Escobar. She shares that she wanted to include a detail that honored Maluma's Colombian roots. 'Emeralds are Colombia's national stone, so we incorporated them into the jewelry, including an emerald watch from Jacob & Co. and custom emerald and diamond studs from Colombian brand Sileo. It was a subtle, yet meaningful way to tie it all together.'
