Why Weren’t Some of New York’s Foremost Black Designers at the Met Gala?
The 2025 Met Gala promised an inclusive affair. Everything from this year’s co-chairs — A$AP Rocky, Lewis Hamilton, Pharrell, Colman Domingo — to the theme of “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” read as an attempt to do right by fashion’s perpetually undersung Black creatives, their muses, and their predecessors.
So, why were Tremaine Emory and Telfar Clemens, two of New York’s — if not the world’s — foremost Black fashion talents, not invited?
Emory, the former Supreme creative director and founder of Denim Tears, is one of the most influential forces in contemporary youth culture. His guiding hand repositioned Stüssy as one of the most potent streetwear labels on the planet and helped turn Denim Tears into a preeminent fashion brand.
Clemens likewise hardly needs an introduction, having built one of the country’s most influential independent clothing companies from the ground up on the strength of community and egalitarian design.
Highsnobiety confirmed that neither Emory nor Clemens received invitations to the 2025 Met Gala. Both designers declined to speak on the record. The Met and Vogue did not respond to a request for comment by time of publication.
Events at this scale inevitably involve some unconscious flubs. The Oscars’ “In Memoriam” tribute typically excludes so many celebrities that reportage on those snubbed is an annual tradition. It’s not hard to imagine that folks like Clemens and Emory weren’t intentionally left off of guest lists, which are themselves intricate affairs.
The oversight doesn’t seem to be on the part of guest curator Monica L. Miller, whose thoughtful tablesetting ensured broad representation in Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, down to the bespoke mannequin heads commissioned from artist Tanda Francis.
Items from both Emory’s Denim Tears and Clemens’ Telfar feature in the Met Museum exhibit that accompanies the May 5 red carpet event.
To amplify this year’s Gala, the Met assembled a host committee for the first time since 2019, tapping talents as disparate as Sha’Carri Richardson, Doechii, Dapper Dan, Simone Biles, Spike Lee, and André 3000. It’s a show of force and a show of respect for the disparate designers and artists involved. It’s saying that this isn’t a VIP-only affair — this is culture recognizing culture.
Of course, even if the designers had been invited, they might not have come. Invitees pay $75,000 per ticket, for one, and both Emory and Clemens have expressed their weariness with the machinations of fashion. Emory famously made his grievances known upon his abrupt departure from Supreme while Clemens spoke on the subject as recently as April 2025.
Appearing on the Cutting Room Floor podcast, Clemens described the industry's various attempts to pigeonhole him as "a Black designer." He also described the process of competing for the 2017 CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund prize, which Telfar won, as “hazing.”
“I really got to understand how people view me,” he said, “And how they misunderstand sh*t. [The CFDA has since given] me many different accessories awards, and I just got bored with the scene,” he added. “The awards would come, and I would leave them at the office.”
These designers, clearly, don’t crave the approval of the powers that be. Nor was their succeed predicated upon institutional validation. But haven’t they earned it?
