← Dressed: The History of Fashion
Dressed: The History of Fashion
"Tailored For You": Fashions from the 2025 Met Gala Blue Carpet, Part I
00:43:01
Loading summary
Transcript101 lines
- [00:02]
Lowe's Advertiser
Lowes helps refresh your garden in time for Mother's Day. Right now get five bags of one and a half cubic foot Scotts Naturescapes mulch for just $10 plus select one and a half gallon annuals. Hanging baskets make the perfect gift. Now two for only $15. The best garden starts with great deals. Lowe's. We help you save ballot through 5 7. Selection varies by location while supplies last. Discount taken at time of purchase.
- [00:30]
eBay Advertiser
When you have high standards and fancy all the fancy things like a Dior saddlebag or that diamond tennis bracelet, you go to ebay. There you'll find new loves that will never disappoint. Expertly authenticated. Whether it's that vintage pearl necklace or brand new ruby earrings, a Prada crossbody bag, or classic watches like that Rolex Oyster or that Cartier tank on ebay, there are no limits to your high standards. Yeah, ebay. The place for new, pre loved, vintage and rare fashion. Ebay Things people love.
- [01:00]
Cassidy Zachary
The History of Fashion is a production of Dressed media. With over 8 billion people in the world, we all have one thing in common. Every day, we all get dressed.
- [01:15]
April Callahan
Welcome to the History of Fashion, a podcast that explores the who, what, when of why we wear. We are friends, fashion historians and your hosts, April Callahan and Cassidy Zachary. Well, hello, Cassidy, Claire.
- [01:30]
Cassidy Zachary
Hello, April. How are you doing today on the day after fashion's biggest night out? How are you feeling?
- [01:38]
April Callahan
A little sleepy. I think that it's fair to say that both of us are operating on a fair amount of caffeine today because this is perhaps the tightest turnaround ever for an episode of Dressed.
- [01:50]
Cassidy Zachary
Yeah. I don't know why I feel like this is the first time we've done this. We've been doing this for many years.
- [01:55]
April Callahan
We do it every year.
- [01:57]
Cassidy Zachary
Yeah. But today, this year's felt significantly shorter.
- [02:00]
April Callahan
For whatever reason, friends, last night, eyes from all over the world were focused on 82nd street and Fifth Avenue in New York City, as it was, as you all know by now, the 2025 Met Gala. So now it's the early afternoon the next day as Cassidy and I are going to bring you all of our thoughts, our quandaries, and hopefully insights into the who, what, when of what was worn on this year's blue carpet.
- [02:27]
Cassidy Zachary
And actually we're recording this on Tuesday. This will be coming your way on Wednesday. But yeah, as April and I just talked about, I mean, we watched the Met Gala from our computers with many of you. I'm sure it's so cool that we can do that and Then I was busy away on Art of Dress, trying to share as many fashion history references as I could with you all, and I was up until, gosh, midnight probably just processing all of this information. Fashion news, fashion dreams.
- [02:58]
April Callahan
So, question. How were you watching the red carpet last night? Because there were a few different ways that you could watch streaming.
- [03:04]
Cassidy Zachary
I watched it on vogue.com.
- [03:06]
April Callahan
Okay, so did I. Yeah. The reason why I asked was I think that if you are watching different streams, you might have seen different things. So you and I were on the same page on that. But before we get into the red carpet, I think it's kind of important that we give a quick primer on the event itself, in case anyone listening isn't necessarily familiar. The Met Gala is actually a fundraising event for the Costume Institute, which is the fashion department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and it's held every first Monday in May. And despite its only fairly recent quote, unquote fame, it has actually been an annual fundraising event since, get this, 1948. So for more than 75 years, this has been going on. Originally, it was called the party of the Year, and for decades and decades, it was pretty much open to anyone who could pay the price of the ticket, which in its inaugural year of 1948 was $50 in money then, which is about the equivalent of $675 today. That's still a pricey amount for many of us now, but a very far cry from the actual ticket price for this year's event, which is rumored to have risen from last year's $60,000 for an individual ticket to $75,000 for an individual ticket.
- [04:28]
Cassidy Zachary
And that is if you are invited, of course. So the invitation list is limited to approximately 700 attendees, each of whom is approved by the event's chairperson. And, of course, I'm talking about Anna Wintour, who is Vogue's editor in chief. It's estimated that over the years, Anna has raised approximately $250 million for the Costume Institute, with around 30 million of that coming from this year's event. And I'm pretty sure it's named after her at this point. She's been so instrumental and a supporting department.
- [05:03]
April Callahan
Costume Institute now.
- [05:05]
Cassidy Zachary
Yes, yes, yes. And we just want to emphasize, too, because there's been a lot of criticism of this event gets compared to Hunger Games, you know, in this showcase for the rich and famous, which, of course it is. But we have to remind our listeners that the Costume Institute receives no funding. It's the only department in the entire museum that is not funded by the museum. And so this fundraising event is incredibly instrumental to preserving fashion as art in this world class institution.
- [05:33]
April Callahan
Yes, very important. Before we get to this year's blue carpet. It was blue this year instead of red. Let's talk a little bit about the exhibition which is associated with the gala each year. This year the exhibition is entitled Super Fine Tailoring Black Style and co curated by the Costume Institute's curator in charge, Andrew Bolton and past dressed guest, Dr. Monica L. Miller, who joined us on our very first season of Dressed for a two part episode to speak about her book Slaves to Black Dandyism and the styling of Black Diasporic identity. And that's right, friends, you heard it here first. Undressed six years ago to be precise. And Cass, you interviewed Monica for those episodes. Might you give us a brief synopsis of what the two of you chatted about all the way back then?
- [06:24]
Cassidy Zachary
Yes, and I also just want to say that this book was Originally published in 2009. So I was speaking to her in 2018 after I had discovered it and read it and was like Andrew Bolton and so many others, just fascinated with this research that she presents in it, which is Based on her PhD research by the way. So that has to be absolutely mind blowing for her to be like my PhD research. And here I am curating fast forward 15 years this exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum. So I actually can't wait to talk to her again. We're hoping to have her on in the future. So this book is a pioneering cultural history of the Black dandy from the 18th century to the contemporary incarnation, which at that time was 2009. And essentially in this book you learn all about this transformation in black style with black men essentially going from being these costumes objects, so having Euro American fashions forced on them as exhibitors of their enslavers, wealth and status. And that transformation to what Monica called self styling. Subjects who use immaculate clothing, arch wit and pointed gesture to announce their often controversial presence. And this is essentially what the theme of the exhibition is about. Yeah.
- [07:39]
April Callahan
Yes. So the exhibition Superfine in many ways brings certain aspects of Dr. Miller's book to life and dress listeners. This is usually the part each year where I tell you about the exhibition, because I've already seen it. The Met has their own kind of list of attendees who they invite for a little breakfast and speeches and a preview of the exhibition before the evening's festivities. And I never miss this except for this year, and that is because I have a broken foot.
- [08:10]
Cassidy Zachary
Yes. But it was fun to see a lot of our friends, you know, the power of social media. So many of our friends were there. Chaney McKnight, who we talk about all the time, Pastor Esque, Wellington, Pastor Esque, guest, so on and so forth. So through them we live vicariously.
- [08:27]
eBay Advertiser
Yes.
- [08:28]
April Callahan
And friends sent me photos. Thank you again, Pastor, US guest Natalie New Dell, and also Mika and her team for the press kit. So I am going to be able to talk about the exhibition just a little bit. And I'd like to quote the press release which gives us really great kind of overview of the exhibition itself. It says, quote, super Fine Tailoring Black Style explores the importance of sartorial style to the formation of black identities in the Atlantic Diaspora. The show is inspired by guest curator Monica L. Miller's 2009 book, Slaves to Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identities, and chronicles the ways in which black people have used dress and fashion to transform their identities and imagine new ways of embodying political and social possibilities. The exhibition interprets the concept as both an aesthetic and a strategy, using garments, paintings, prints, photographs, decorative arts, literary texts and film to explore this cultural and historic phenomenon from the 18th century until today.
- [09:30]
Cassidy Zachary
And the exhibition itself is organized into 12 different sections, quote, each representing a characteristic that defines this style. And we won't list all of them here, but some of them include things like ownership, disguise, freedom, heritage and cool. And as the title of the exhibition implies, the emphasis here is, but not exclusively on tailoring and menswear and presents a history of black style through the lens of dandyism, which can loosely be defined as the study of elegance and fashionability. And I will just say we have multiple episodes in the future planned on explaining the Dandy to you. As I mentioned, we're hoping to have Monica on in the future, as well as some other guests to talk about the significance of tailoring and dandyism and the Black Dandy.
- [10:16]
April Callahan
Yes. So while the exhibition itself each year has a different premise, every single year, the exhibition associated with the Met Gala is a different exhibition. The dress code directives for the gala each year are always related to the exhibition or tangential to the exhibition. They're always in keeping with the exhibition's theme, but they're not always exactly the same. Cass, would you tell us a little bit about this year's gala dress code?
- [10:42]
Cassidy Zachary
This year's gala dress code is tailored for you. So tailoring, of course, suiting is a really big theme of the exhibition. It's a staple of the Black Dandy's wardrobe historically into Today. But also, tailoring can be an adjective. Right. As well as a noun. So this is something that can be taken literally or figuratively. So it really is a. As most of these dress codes are a good jumping off point for a lot of different people's interpretations. Of course, some people do it better than others. Before April, we dive into our favorites from the evening. What were your general thoughts?
- [11:20]
April Callahan
My general thoughts that this year in particular, everyone did a good job or better. Good or better. And that's not always the case. I feel like everybody did a really solid job. Everybody looked great. But I would say probably like, halfway through the red carpet, I was like, this is a little boring. There hadn't been any wow moments for me yet. And I think I texted both you and Rise of Britannia, who does Met Gala Bingo. Hilarious. Met Gala Bingo every year. And I was like, where's Janelle Monet? Where's my girl? I need to see something.
- [11:57]
Cassidy Zachary
Yeah, I'd say overall, I was surprised, if not a little disappointed that there wasn't more color. I thought that there would be so much more color, and a lot of people went with that monochromatic gray or black or blue that is so often associated with modern suiting. But there's so much color historically in black, dandy's kind of suited expression. So I was a little surprised by that. But I will have to say that tailoring is all about details, right? And you and I are both going to go into the details, literally sewn into the seams of so many of these ensembles featured on this red carpet or blue carpet this year. And because so much of tailoring is about that craftsmanship, the art of tailoring. And there were some exceptionally beautiful examples of just exquisitely tailored garments, like Hunter Schaeffer in Prada. Beautifully stunning.
- [12:46]
April Callahan
And her makeup was especially beautiful, too.
- [12:48]
Cassidy Zachary
Yes. You had Justice Smith in Valentino, who had Marcel Waves and this homage to Prince going on, but an impeccably tailored garment. So there was a lot of that going on. Damson, Idris, and this burgundy Tommy Hilfiger suit, as you said. Overall, everybody looked fantastic. So much, I think, is in the details that we're going to talk about here as Monica in an interview I read. I don't know who it was with, but she said dandyism is very intentional. And it was intentional. And so this night, there's a lot of intention. There's a lot of looks done with intention and heart. So I don't know if you have a favorite look that you want to jump off the conversation with yes.
- [13:28]
April Callahan
And this is just, you know, favorite look. A favorite look that doesn't necessarily have things that I feel like I need to unpack about it. But I have three words for you. Tracee Ellis Ross, who was in fabulous, all shades of pink and red and burgundy. Marc Jacobs. Some sources say that maybe it was a jumpsuit that she was wearing, but. But the entire ensemble was made out of this very heavy satin weave textile that had a high shine to it. Everything was oversized as well. And she had on these pale pink kind of bouffant pants and the top was white and had a cowl neck. And then what was so fascinating is over all of this, she had a ginormous shocking pink cummerbund with a three foot wide bow in the back. On top of that, she had a cropped burgundy jacket with a little red pocket square square. It was really kind of a master class in color theory. And everything was oversized, everything was a little bit off, including her fantastic hat, which was incredibly oversized and asymmetrical. And it was rose and burgundy. And of course, it was by the maestro himself, none other than Stephen Jones.
- [14:44]
Cassidy Zachary
And I will say that there were a lot of looks I noticed that were bordering on camp or there was a humorous element to them. And I realized almost all of them were from Marc Jacobs because he is really having this really fun experimental moment right now, playing with shapes and fashion history. Because Rihanna also showed up at 10pm last night on the red carpet announcing her third pregnancy, which was super fun. She was there in Marc Jacobs in a similarly really fun homage to fashion history because she had this huge bustle, like this tailored. It was like a suit jacket that had been rearranged into this bustle. And then this fabulous almost cartwheel hat from like the 1910s. It was Marc Jacobs pays homage to the Edwardian era through this really avant garde suiting. So those are really fun moments on the red carpet. Thank you, Marc Jacobs. While we're on the topic of fashion history, and I have a lot to say about fashion history, and if you followed along on art of dress last night, you'll see a lot of my posts. But when I opened that app at, what was it, 4:00, my time, when I knew the coverage was starting, I opened Instagram. The very first person who popped up on my screen was past dress guest Christian Allaire, who is indigenous, he's Ojibwe, he's a Vogue staff writer, and he is an incredibly important voice for indigenous fashion. And he delivered. I don't think he actually walked the blue carpet. He was reporting on it. But he showed up in this impeccably tailored black suit that had an incredibly meaningful story sewn into the seams. It was so beautiful. And I'm gonna share it with you here through his own words. Cause he shared it with us. He said, I'm so honored to wear a custom suit by Justin Jacob Lewis to this year's Met Gal. This three piece pinstripe suit features indigenous style beadwork throughout. And so it had this distinctive indigenous beadwork at the collars, for instance, and in the pinstripes of the suit. And then he's wearing a pocket chain and scarf tie by MDW Jewelry and a ring by Note above. But in keeping with this year's theme around black dandyism, Justin and I were inspired by the book Black Indians, which explores the intersections of indigenous and black culture. And in the pages we found beautiful photographs of black Ojibwe men wearing the most beautiful and slick suits, some adorned with beadwork. And to me, this was the perfect mood for this year. So just. That was impeccable. He looked fantastic. And it was an excellent way to start off my fashion history coverage of the Met Gala.
- [17:13]
April Callahan
Well, I note that you made note that the pinstripes were beads. And this is a theme that we saw throughout the entire Runway that a lot of designers had made the decision to either bead the pinstripes in or. Or they were a metallic of some other sort. Maybe they were a sequin or maybe it was the textile. But that was. We saw that theme appear again and again.
- [17:33]
Cassidy Zachary
Yeah, because of course, pinstripe being one of those staples of men's tailoring.
- [17:38]
April Callahan
Yes. Who was another fashion history fave.
- [17:41]
Cassidy Zachary
Well, speaking of men's tailoring and fashion history references, I have to talk about Jeremy O. Harris. Do you know Jeremy O. Harris, April?
- [17:51]
April Callahan
Yes, yes. And this was another one of my faves.
- [17:55]
Cassidy Zachary
So I'm familiar with him only because he was the fashion designer nemesis on Emily in Paris. Cause he's an actor, but I had no idea. He is actually a really incredibly important Tony nominated playwright and screenwriter. He's a bit of a scholar himself. He was on the Met Gala committee and he is himself a modern day dandy. So he shows up on the red carpet and in custom Balmain by Olivier Rouston. Did you see what Olivier himself was wearing, by the way? Did you see his bag?
- [18:25]
April Callahan
I made a whole note that he was one of the best dressed men on the red carpet and his suit was entirely black, but he had all These literally metallic gold accents, like his pocket square was like metal, it was gold. He had on the gold metal shirt. But the piece de resistance was his bag, of course.
- [18:46]
Cassidy Zachary
Yes.
- [18:46]
April Callahan
Which was a sewing machine.
- [18:50]
Cassidy Zachary
Yeah. And I think he was paying homage to tools of the tailoring trade because Jenna Ortega, the actress, was dressed in Balmain and she's wearing this metal ruler dress. It's entirely made out of metal rulers. And then he has this sewing machine which is of course a tool of the tailor's trade. So a literal, very literal interpretations of the theme, but done impeccably well. And then he collaborated with Jeremy O. Harris in creating this incredible suit which paid homage to early 19th century menswear, specifically that quintessential dandy era of Beau Brummel. So what you think of when you think of that period. So he's wearing this navy blue cutaway tailcoat with this high collared shirt and cravat tied around his neck with these slim fit trousers. It's tailored to perfection. But what was incredibly noteworthy about this look, other than the fact that, that it paid this incredible reference to this period in history, was not the suit but actually the jewelry. Did you notice the ring he was wearing?
- [19:47]
April Callahan
Oh, no, because I actually for somehow or another I missed his appearance on the red carpet. I only saw static photos of him after the fact.
- [19:56]
Cassidy Zachary
So if you notice in the pictures he's posing and he's holding up his hand because he has this ring that is, I guess to describe it I would say it's perpendicular to his finger and so it's sticking up. And that's because he really wants to show off what is on his finger. And it's this incredible ring custom made by the jeweler Benjamin Hawkins. It's made of 2.2 karat peach, brown pear shaped diamond in the center with an enamel based and an enameled portrait in a diamond frame. So it's, if you look closely at it, it's a portrait that's been hand painted featuring Jeremy in 19th century attire wearing a silver collar and pearl earring.
- [20:37]
April Callahan
Very met.
- [20:38]
Cassidy Zachary
Yes. Again, one of those details that you could have missed on the red carpet. I found out more about it from a Town and country article and again about his suit. When we're talking about all these different fashions worn by all these people, there's so many multi tiered layers to a lot of these stories. And I also found this fantastic article that interviewed not Olivier, but the tailor who tailored Olivier's suit to Jeremy. And so there was an article all about this celebrity Taylor Lionel Nichols, who tailored this look and all the looks actually worn by Balmain wearing attendees that night. He's this entirely self taught tailor and he did this interview with Fashionista and says tailors have been underrepresented, especially black tailors. So culturally it's significant because it's a time where there's a platform highlighting us as a whole. He's of course talking about this Met Gala. Also for me, family wise, my dad grew up in a time where anytime he went out, he was wearing a suit. So when I look back through family albums, every photo of my dad, he's in a suit. And that to me is quintessential dandy. And he goes on to say, this is one of the most significant moments of my career as a black designer and tailor. So again, we have to remember that there's these people in front of the camera on the red carpet, but there's also all of these people behind the scenes that are making this possible. And a lot of them come with these really beautiful, meaningful stories that fortunately we can't all get into here. But we're gonna do our best. Best.
- [22:06]
April Callahan
Dress listeners. It goes without saying that a lot of our shopping errands are made a lot easier these days by shopping online. So why aren't you using Rakuten? Ratin is the smartest way to save money when you shop.
- [22:19]
Cassidy Zachary
That's right. You can earn cash back when you shop at 3,500 stores for fashion, beauty, electronics, home essentials, travel, dining, concert tickets and more. How does it work? You ask brands pay Rakuten for sending them shoppers and this is passed along to you as cash back.
- [22:35]
April Callahan
From Sephora to Petco and Levi's to Expedia, when you shop with Rakuten, your cash back can be deposited directly into your PayPal account or they will send you a check. Membership is free and you can even maximize your savings by stacking cash back on top of other deals like store sales and coupons.
- [22:54]
Cassidy Zachary
Get the Rakuten app now and join the 17 million members who are already saving cashback rates change daily. See rakuten.com for details. That's R A K U T E N Your cash back really adds up.
- [23:11]
April Callahan
One story that I did not have on my bingo card, so to speak. Not my Met bingo card. Not you, Risa. Just generally speaking was a fashion history lesson from Gigi Hadid on the carpet last night.
- [23:23]
Cassidy Zachary
Yes, that was one of my absolute favorites as well.
- [23:28]
April Callahan
So if any of you didn't happen to watch the red carpet and You've only seen photos of her dress. She's wearing a very beautiful draped, metallic gold. It's very seductive, it's very tight. But on the red carpet, she. She told the backstory of the dress, which was actually a reference to Zelda Wynn Valdez, who we have of course, already done a past dress episode on. And she was a black designer who worked in Harlem. She worked with a lot of high profile stars and starlets and chanteuses and stage performers, including one Josephine Baker, who is photographed wearing a dress that is very similar to the one that Gigi is wearing.
- [24:09]
Cassidy Zachary
And it's this beautiful gold sequined, form fitting, floor length gown. She collaborated with Mumu. And what I really loved about Gigi Hadid because a lot of the questioning about this night that is a celebration of black dandyism and black men and women's contributions throughout history to fashion in general is how are white people specifically going to show up and pay homage to this theme? And some did it better than others. And I will say that Gigi Hadid is certainly one of those people. She collaborated with stylist Gabrielle Karifa Johnson to really embody this 1940s glamour. And so many people interpreted it as an homage to Josephine Baker, but in reality, and she talks about it on the red carpet, it was an homage to Zelda. And a lot of people I posted about this on Instagram. A lot of people were like, this isn't on theme. Like, it's great that she's celebrating a black designer, but what does this have to do with tailoring? And Gigi tells you, she tells us about Zelda, that she grew up working in her uncle's men's tailoring shop and brought that to her own dressmaking shop in Washington Heights. So she brought the art of tailoring to the female form when she opened her own Atelier in 1948.
- [25:15]
April Callahan
She was tailor trained.
- [25:17]
Cassidy Zachary
Yes, exactly. And then Gigi talked about how she takes on that essence of black dandyism and mixing all of these beautiful techniques and skills. So I thought that was a really unique and beautiful interpretation of the theme. It's not literal. Again, it's more about the meaning and the story that goes with it.
- [25:35]
April Callahan
And you can learn more about Zelda if you tune into our past dressed episode on her. What else? What else do you have for us, Cass?
- [25:43]
Cassidy Zachary
If we're going to stay on the theme of fashion history homages, we have to talk about Jody Turner Smith's burgundy ensemble. Of course, you know what I'm talking about. I sure do.
- [25:54]
April Callahan
Somehow or another, I also missed her on the red carpet. Maybe I was going to get a water or something.
- [26:00]
Cassidy Zachary
Yeah, they're there. They're pretty quick. With 700 people, right, attending this event.
- [26:05]
April Callahan
I don't think all 700. Only 300 people or so walk the red carpet. Not everybody walks. Not everybody walks the red carpet.
- [26:12]
Cassidy Zachary
Yeah, yeah. But 300 people. Yeah. If you blinked, you might have missed some people. But you would not have missed Jody Turner Smith because she was in this head to toe burgundy ensemble. She has this fantastic top hat and then she has this tailored to perfection. Burgundy. I guess it's a kind of a tail coat. It is fitted to her form and then flares out into a skirt. And I believe she's wearing pants with it. But she was paying homage to this famous black equestrian by the name of Selena Zavesky. And there's this really famous portrait. And you can check it out on our Instagram because we'll reshare it on dress as well of art addressed. Selena is this black equestrian, as I mentioned, who lived during the belle epoch in Paris. And there's this really famous photograph of her from 1891 by the photographer Paul Nadar. And Burberry wrote about it. They said that, quote, the coaches, cinched waist and bustle reference the Victorian silhouette captured insulin portrait, switching traditional tailoring fabrics for leather embossed with an ornate floral design. So just a really beautiful homage to a beautiful woman.
- [27:16]
April Callahan
Yeah. I guess we should point out that Jody's ensemble was leather, correct?
- [27:20]
Cassidy Zachary
Oh, yeah.
- [27:21]
April Callahan
So it wasn't fabric, it was leather. That made it all the more spectacular. And my read on it, as soon as I actually saw the static photograph, because again, I didn't see it on the Runway, was that it was directly in reference to the writing habit. Like, I picked up on that immediately.
- [27:35]
Cassidy Zachary
Yeah, yeah.
- [27:36]
April Callahan
So it wasn't necessarily that dress silhouette of the 19th century. It was the 19th century riding habit.
- [27:42]
Cassidy Zachary
And if you see the pictures compared, which we'll show you, you'll see exactly what she's talking about.
- [27:47]
April Callahan
So, okay, so I have a fashion history moment, and that is Jeremy Pope. Did you?
- [27:54]
Cassidy Zachary
I miss Jeremy Pope. So I'm looking him up right now.
- [27:57]
April Callahan
Oh, okay. Well, styled by none other than Law Roach. Talk about a fashion history moment. And I'm sure some people were so confused by his ensemble. So please let us help because compared to the other attendees, he probably looked very plainly dressed in this sort of sleeveless rough linen tunic that has a slight Mandarin collar. But actually, if you know what he's Wearing this look is extremely cerebral and pulled straight from the pages of fashion history. This tunic is from Maison Margiela's 1997, 1998 fall winter collection. And that particular collection featured a lot of different looks that were based on dressmaker forms or tailoring forms. So the form of the dress form itself is the aesthetic of the garment. They use this kind of rough hewn linen. And there's also a stencil of the size high up on the chest, just below the throat. And if you look very closely, there's also a stencil at the bottom that says semi couture near the bottom hem. And this is where typically perhaps that dress form or mannequins manufacturer information might be. And this tunic is really a reference to the act and the art and the craft of tailoring and also part of fashion history, as we fashion historians call this particular collection Margiela's Stockman collection. And Stockman was a very popular brand of tailoring dummies or dress forms at the time. So it was paired with simple black trousers. And I was just like speechless. I was like, damn, Law Roach gets it. He really knows his fashion history and he knows when to pull it out, if and when it suits a particular client for a specific event. And this was that.
- [29:48]
Cassidy Zachary
Yeah. And actually it brings up a good point that I wasn't paying 10 attention to at all last night was I wasn't looking out for any vintage or anybody wearing vintage fashion. So this was a perfect example of that. So, yeah, and he looks fantastic.
- [30:03]
April Callahan
Yes, he does. Probably underdressed to some people, but now you understand what it is, it makes a lot more sense. And then I saw another ensemble that stopped me in my tracks. That is yet another reference to the process of tailoring. Cass, did you see Walton Goggins ensemble?
- [30:19]
Cassidy Zachary
I did. I think he was in Tom Brown, right?
- [30:22]
April Callahan
Yes, yes, yes, he was definitely in Tom Brown. And he's in a black skirt suit. The skirt has a nearly floor length jacket that has heavily padded shoulders, but hints of white are popping out near the shoulders and also the reverse or the lapels of the coat. And those little hints of white popping out are a reference to the process of tailoring midway through the construction of the jacket when the tailor is still finessing the fit and not all the seams have been closed up yet. And then there's also this nearly floor length skirt. It's almost all black, except every once in a while you see these vertical glimpses of white going down. It's almost like paneling and this is a reference to the cutting process in tailoring, when the shapes of the garment are cut, but they haven't been assembled yet. So this entire ensemble is a reference to the art and the craft of tailoring. It's extremely smart. And I have to say, Tom and his team gave us a hell of a show this year with many people's looks on the red carpet. We're definitely going to talk at least about one more, if not more than one, Tom Brown look.
- [31:32]
Cassidy Zachary
Well, and I was going to say, I'm usually. I have mixed feelings about Thom Browne. I absolutely appreciate him as a genius of the fit and form. I feel like his work can be a little redundant sometimes. You see a lot of the same. Because his focus is tailoring and suiting. You see a lot of the same color palettes and. And types of examples from his work. But I was so pleasantly surprised by all of the different Thom Brown incarnations on the red carpet. We can talk about them now if you want, but I was pleasantly surprised and I have lots to say about a couple different looks as well.
- [32:03]
April Callahan
Okay. If we're going on the subject of Tom Brown, that pulls right into one of my all time favorite looks of the night, the one that I had been waiting for all along, Ms. Janelle Monae, who nailed it in Thom Browne. And it wasn't just her that nailed it. It was her and Thom Browne, in collaboration with Paul Tazewell, past dress guest and now Oscar winner costume designer. But first, before we go into the outfit, I want to read this quote that Janelle said when she learned of the theme of the gala this year. She said, quote, I felt like a kid in class ready to give the presentation.
- [32:41]
Cassidy Zachary
Yes.
- [32:44]
April Callahan
Yeah. So she, of course, has been dressing in suiting for many years. She has been dressing particularly in Tom Brown suits. And she even went out of her way once to remark that Thom Browne dressed her in her first suit when no other designer would. So they obviously have a tender, intimate relationship. Did you love this look as much as I did?
- [33:04]
Cassidy Zachary
I loved this look. And as I'm sure you're gonna tell us, it was multi tiered. Please just try and describe this for people and we'll definitely do a post about it as well, because it was just so fun. Visually stunning, and then again a performance, because it's always a performance with her.
- [33:21]
April Callahan
Yeah. So it was not one, not two, actually. It was three looks. We only saw two of them on the red carpet. So I'm going to describe the first two to start with, and then don't let me forget to tell you about the third. So the first look that we see her on the red carpet is an encasement of sorts. Some people have referred to it as a cape. I don't want to call it a cape because it's a lot more structured than that. It has heavily padded horizontal silhouette at the shoulders that kind of completely distorts the natural line of the shoulder. You can't see the natural line.
- [33:53]
Cassidy Zachary
And there was a lot of that silhouette on the red carpet. These really strong, structural, almost triangular shoulders because they go out. And then the silhouette went.
- [34:01]
April Callahan
Yeah, yeah. It makes the waist look really small. But that's not the case here because this just falls straight down to the floor. It's almost like a column. And then the center front of the encasement is printed with this trompe l'oeil black suit. Half of the printed suit is pinstripe, and the other half is solid black. And at the cuff of this trompe l'oeil suit, printed on this encasement, which does not have sleeves. Right. Is a handbag at the cuff of the suit, which is really cute. And then the rest of the encasement is all red, and it's embroidered with these almost op art white lines. It's tough to describe, but once it's taken off, once we see what's underneath, she's wearing an actual suit underneath. Again, it's a half and half affair. An exquisitely tailored jacket and a long skirt combination. So one side of this whole ensemble is black and white pinstripe with white accents. And again, it has some of those references on that side of her suit of the process of tailoring not being quite finished yet. She has a beaded string hanging down, and it looks like there's some kind of padding hanging out. And then the other side of the suit is red and it has white piping. And this whole look is paired with a half striped bowler hat. It has an attached monocle and an actual bag that's a version of the bag that's depicted on the encasement. It's so wild and so wonderful. And Paul Tazewell said, you almost go from traditional male to the red exuberant female, all on the same figure. And this, of course, makes sense for Janelle because she identifies as non binary. But again, she's been wearing suits as part of her incredibly fashion forward Persona for years at this point.
- [35:46]
Cassidy Zachary
Yeah, it's just so incredibly graphically interesting. So beautiful. Such an homage to black dandyism in a myriad of Forms and especially that kind of gender play with the suit. And, of course, there's a long history of women embodying dandyism and playing with dandyism, too. So bravo. Thom Brown and Janelle Monae and Mr. Paul Tazewell. You absolutely nailed the assignment.
- [36:11]
April Callahan
Yeah. Yeah. And Janelle, of this entire look, she says, I think cinematically, what is the character? I want to come as a time traveler. I'm honoring the present, who I am now. I'm honoring the past, my ancestry, the people who came before me. And she points out that she has cornrows. And she said, my great grandma had these. And I'm also honoring the future. What is the future? Right now, I'm wearing the first diamond made from tequila. And the diamond, the jewel that she had on, was a collaboration with the tequila brand 1800. And they have figured out how to turn and distill and make tequila into a jewel.
- [36:48]
Cassidy Zachary
I saw what I thought was an ad. I guess it was an ad for that, and I skipped it because I thought it was an ad. But that is incredibly fascinating.
- [36:57]
April Callahan
And she says, knowing the impact of traditional diamond mining has had on African nations, it felt important to me that this piece reflected a more conscious and considered approach to jewelry wearing. All right, last thing before we sign off. Third incarnation of this ensemble was at the after party, and her long skirt has been taken off, and she's wearing either super short skirt or shorts that matches the whole ensemble. She still has on the same jacket, I think, but she's taken off the shirt, and she's only wearing pasties underneath, and they're anchors.
- [37:31]
Cassidy Zachary
I did not see that.
- [37:32]
April Callahan
So it's a whole third look. That was for the after party. I love her.
- [37:37]
Cassidy Zachary
Yeah. She is so fantastic.
- [37:40]
E
This episode is brought to you by State Farm. You might say all kinds of stuff when things go wrong, but these are the words you really need to remember. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. They've got options to fit your unique insurance needs, meaning you can talk to your agent to choose the coverage you need. Have coverage options to protect the things you value most, file a claim right on the State Farm mobile app, and even reach a real person when you need to talk to someone. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
- [38:09]
Cassidy Zachary
And while we're on the subject of Thom Brown, we cannot talk about Thom Brown without talking about Whoopi Goldberg, which I don't know if you saw her ensemble. And one of you dress listeners, and I'm sorry that I did not write down your name, was like, take a Second look at Whoopi's outfit, because it looks like. So she's wearing a black suit dress, and it's a really thick silk satin of some kind. I'm sure there's a technical term for that that I don't know. And it's a very traditional suit at first glance, in terms of she's wearing a collar, a black tie, and then she has this black dress on with a row of buttons all the way down the front. It's paired with a top hat and veil. And then over it, in classic Thom Browne, you know, playing with silhouettes and different layering, there's this fur coat that is draped around her shoulders and open at front, and it has pockets at the side. And this listener wrote to me and said, please take a second look at it. If you look closer, you will see that this is not actually a fur coat. The texture is achieved by 350,000 sequins.
- [39:17]
April Callahan
What? Tom Brown loves the trompe l'oeil. He's going for it right now.
- [39:25]
Cassidy Zachary
Yes. 7700 hours to create.
- [39:29]
April Callahan
Wow.
- [39:30]
Cassidy Zachary
And Brown told Evogue that for me, everything begins and ends with tailoring. I like to play with and reinterpret classic codes, black tie dressing, and to reintroduce those traditional coats to people in ways they've never seen before. And he absolutely did that here. And Whoopi looked fantastic and just, again, so unexpected. And I was just really happy with all the Thom Browne on the red carpet. And with that being said, dress listeners, we have just scratched the surface of our Met Gala coverage. I don't know how we actually thought we would fit this all into one episode, and we are not going to, because we have so much more to say about black dandyism and this Met Gala blue carpet. So you're just going to have to tune back in on Friday for part two?
- [40:16]
April Callahan
That's right. If you'd like to find the social media content related to these two episodes this week, you can use the hashtag dressed538 and dressed539. I think that does it for us. Today, dressed listeners, may you consider the Art of the Dandy? Next time you get dressed, please head over to essedpodcast on Instagram or on Facebook to check out the visual content associated with each week's episodes.
- [40:46]
Cassidy Zachary
Remember, we love hearing from you dressed listeners, so if you'd like to write to us, you can do so@hellorusthistory.com DressedHistory.com is also our website where you can sign up for our monthly newsletter, our in person tours and online fashion history courses and there you can also check out whatever else we have up our finely tailored sleeves.
- [41:04]
April Callahan
We get so many questions from you all about our recommendations for fashion fashion history books so if you're interested you can always find a link in our show notes to our bookshop.org bookshelf so that address is bookshop.org shop forward/dressed and there you will find over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles.
- [41:26]
Cassidy Zachary
Do you love Dressed but want to skip the ads? We are so excited to now be a part of the Airwave Network and their premium ad free history title subscription Airwave History plus and this is available on Apple Podcasts and the subscription brings you our podcast as well as 27 other popular history podcasts ad free for $5.99 per month. More information is available at the link in our bio.
- [41:51]
April Callahan
Thank you as always for tuning in and more Dressed coming your way soon. Dressed the History of Fashion is a production of Dressed Media.