 "India's superstar Shah Rukh Khan is expected to walk the red carpet at the Met Gala. He's most likely to be dressed by designer Sabyasachi for fashion's biggest night. File image/PTI")
In a few hours, the ‘Badshah’ of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan, will walk the red carpet at the iconic Met Gala, marking his debut at the event held each year in New York on the first Monday of May. With this, the superstar will become the first Indian male actor to walk up the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City for the world’s biggest fundraiser event on fashion, art, and popular culture.
In addition to Shah Rukh , the Met Gala ’s red carpet will feature other Indian celebrities, including the country’s favourite Punjabi singer Diljit Dosanjh, and Bollywood star Kiara Advani. It is reported that Priyanka Chopra-Jonas will also make a stylish return to the event; she last made an appearance in 2023, donning a Valentino couture gown that featured an all-black strapless dress with a bow and a thigh-high slit.
As the buzz around the stars’ presence at the event builds, everyone is asking one question: What will Shah Rukh and Diljit wear to the most anticipated night in fashion? How will they interpret and conform to the dress code of the event — ‘Tailored for You’ that is connected to the Costume Institute’s latest exhibition, which is Superfine: Tailoring Black Style?
Dressing up SRK for the Met Gala
SRK’s debut at the Met Gala is one of the most anticipated moments for Indians and fans of the superstar. It has been heavily speculated that renowned designer Sabyasachi will be dressing Shah Rukh for the event and hours before it, the designer and Shah Rukh’s team have been dropping hints of this.
Ahead of the big night, Sabyasachi on Instagram put up two posts on his feed. On a plain black screen, the designer posted, “King Khan” and “King Khan Bengal Tiger.”
Later, Pooja Dadlani, Shah Rukh Khan’s manager, posted a similar image to her X account, all but confirming that the designer would be dressing up the Badshah of Bollywood.
Soon after the posts hit cyberspace, fans began speculating what would be Sabyasachi’s vision for Shah Rukh Khan at the Met. Some noted that Shah Rukh would be donning a dhoti kurta, others guessed that it would be a suit along with the designer’s intricate jewellery, including the Bengal Tiger bracelet — which is described to be an 18-carat gold handpiece with 30.32 carats of rubellite (the red or pink variety of tourmaline), over 138 carats of tourmalines, rubies, rhodolites, garnet, old mine cut and brilliant cut diamonds.
Diljit’s style quotient at the Met Gala
The Punjabi singer, who earlier got the world dancing to his tunes, has also confirmed his presence at this year’s Met. Dosanjh took to Instagram to share a fun video of unwrapping the Met Gala invite and taking us through it.
It is rumoured that Dosanjh will be wearing a creation by Prabal Gurung for the event. For non-fashion watchers, Prabal Gurung is the same designer who dressed Alia Bhatt for her 2023 debut at the Met — she donned a white, Chanel-inspired gown with over one lakh pearls as a tribute to Karl Lagerfeld, who was the theme of that year’s Met.
Met Gala and the dress code of ‘Tailored for You’
The question is how will Shah Rukh, Sabyasachi, Diljit, and Gurung interpret the theme of this year’s Met Gala — “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.”
But what does this even mean?
As per the Met organisers, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” will pay homage to black dandyism and “[explore] the importance of clothing and style to the formation of Black identities in the Atlantic diaspora.”
As Vogue explained the theme is inspired by Monica L Miller’s book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, published in 2009.
According to Miller, in a Vogue report, dandyism can also be defined as “dressing wisely and well.” She explains in her essay, “Black dandyism is a strategy and a tool to rethink identity, to reimagine the self in a different context. To really push a boundary — especially during the time of enslavement, to really push a boundary on who and what counts as human, even.”
It is believed that black dandyism, which is characterised by an intense focus on aesthetics, emerging as far back as 1700s England, when slave owners who wanted to flaunt their wealth began dressing their slaves in expensive clothing, creating a “dandified black servant” or “luxury slave’ trend.
Soon, it became a practice wherein Black people used the power of clothing, personal style and even humour and wit as a form of resistance, and a way for them to push back on societal limitations and negative perceptions not just in terms of race, but also class, gender and sexuality.
For those who want a simple explanation, Black dandyism is the metamorphosis of Black men into style giants.
One such example, according to Miller, is the historic figure Julius Soubise, a freed slave and 18th-century London socialite described as a sartorial impresario. Modern-day examples of Black dandyism would be the late André Leon Talley, a fashion powerhouse and editor-at-large of Vogue magazine. There’s also the singer extraordinaire Prince and even Met Gala co-chairs Pharrell Williams.
So, what can one expect from the celebrities at the Met Gala? Complex Editor-in-Chief Aria Hughes told CBS News, “We’re going to see lots of suits, I think in all shapes, sizes, colours.
“I think designers are going to play in different ways, and then hopefully lay in some storytelling. I hope to see some archival pieces from Black designers, like a Patrick Kelly or a Willi Smith. So I’m really hoping that people have fun with it.”
Notably, this is the first time that the Met Gala will focus exclusively on menswear since 2003 when the theme was “Men in Skirts”.
Met gala hosts and ties to Black dandyism
This year’s Met gala is also more significant as it is being co-hosted by all men — record producer and Louis Vuitton men’s creative director Pharrell Williams, Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton, actor Colman Domingo, rapper A$AP Rocky and basketball legend LeBron James.
As Andrew Bolton, curator in charge of the Costume Institute, stated, “They’re all men who aren’t afraid to take risks with their self-presentation. They take advantage of classic forms, but they also remix them and break them down in really new ways. I think Black men and Black designers are very much at the forefront of this new renaissance in menswear.”
With inputs from agencies
Roshneesh is on the Explainers team and loves her job. Apart from the everyday 'explaining', she enjoys tennis and is a Rafa fan for life. She is also a Potterhead.