Anne Hathaway’s Tribute to André Leon Talley at the 2025 Met Gala
Anne Hathaway arrived at the 2025 Met Gala with a clear brief: dress for one person. Her custom Carolina Herrera look, designed by creative director Wes Gordon, was a tribute to André Leon Talley, the Vogue editor and one of the most influential Black figures in fashion, who died in 2022 at the age of 73.
The theme: “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style”
The 2025 Costume Institute exhibition, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style”, explored Black dandyism and the history of Black style through tailoring, and the gala’s dress code was “Tailored for You”. It was a natural moment to honour Talley, whose capes, kaftans and precisely cut suits made him one of the most recognisable dressers in the industry and a fixture on the Met Gala steps for decades.
“We dressed for one person,” Hathaway said on the night, “and we wanted André Leon Talley to look down from heaven and scream ‘Glamour!'”
The look: a white shirt and a beaded column skirt
The outfit was built from two pieces. On top was a crisp, tailored white button-down shirt. Below was a black-and-silver striped column skirt worked with some 200,000 beads and rhinestones, worn with towering black heels.
The shirt was the heart of the tribute. “A crisp white shirt is the critical foundation for many dandy looks and something André had a deep love for,” Gordon told Harper’s Bazaar. The skirt supplied the drama, turning a sober striped suiting pattern into something that glittered under the flashbulbs.
Hathaway finished the look with Bulgari jewellery, including a diamond necklace set with a sapphire described as the size of an egg. ELLE also noted that the combination of crisp shirt and sparkling skirt nodded to her character in Ocean’s 8, the heist film that is itself set at the Met Gala.
How Wes Gordon built the tribute
To prepare, Gordon was given access to Talley’s personal wardrobe archive at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), and he described the design process with Hathaway as a genuine creative collaboration over several weeks. What struck him about Talley’s dressing was its contrast. “I think what he was so brilliant at was mixing the discipline with the flamboyance,” he told ELLE, “the tailoring with the drama and exuberance.”
That tension is visible in the finished look. The shirt is disciplined; the beaded skirt is exuberant. Neither reads as costume, and together they suggest Talley’s taste without imitating any single outfit he wore.
From gala to after-party
Later that night Hathaway kept the top half of the look and changed the bottom. She wore the same white shirt, without the jewellery, with high-waisted capri trousers, silver kitten heels and oversized sunglasses, a much easier outfit for dancing. It also proved the point Gordon had made: a well-cut white shirt works in almost any context.
Who was André Leon Talley?
Talley spent much of his career at Vogue, where he served as creative director and later editor-at-large, and he was a close friend and confidant to designers across the industry. As one of very few Black editors at the top of fashion publishing for much of his career, he championed Black models and designers and became known for his erudition, his commanding presence and his larger-than-life wardrobe.
Why the look resonated
Many guests interpreted the theme through literal suiting. Hathaway’s approach was more personal: take one garment the honoree loved, cut it perfectly, and pair it with something unmistakably glamorous. The result was restrained enough to respect the theme and theatrical enough for the occasion, and it gave the evening one of its most specific and heartfelt tributes.
