Thebe Magugu couture debuts at the 2025 MET Gala

The 2025 New York Metropolitan Museum of Art Gala theme, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style”, resonates with both the continent and the African diaspora as it puts Black dandyism on display.

With a keen eye on the looks being revealed, we’re excited by Thebe Magugu couture’s debut outing, with Canadian creative director and fashion designer Aurora James wearing a Thebe Magugu West and Central African-inspired creation, drawing on the cultural work and legacies of sartorial photographers such as Malick Sidibé.

The celebrated Malian photographer, who worked mainly in black-and-white images, documented the exuberant lives and culture of the youth of Bamako, Mali, in the 1960s and is credited for shaping fresh perspectives on how Africans were seen globally and how they see themselves. His work continues to inspire a new generation of fashion photographers and culture makers such as Trevor Stuurman.

Of his creation, Magugu says, “I was inspired by the female muses of the Central & West African sartorial photographers in the 1950s and 1960s. Photographers such as Seydou Keïta, Malick Sidibé, and Mama Casset — themselves style icons of the superfine — photographed women in a powerful blend of vintage elegance, cultural pride, and subtle sensuality. The self-assured gazes of these women ensured that they sit before the lens not as subjects but as co-authors of their image and likeness. Silhouette has always been so key in these images, with the women taking on an almost totemic and sculptural shape.

“While the suit has historically been a symbol of respectability and power (granted, with a difficult history), it is only one language in a much broader vocabulary of Black style. Across the diaspora, Black fashion draws on a tapestry of references: ancestral textiles, streetwear ingenuity, church elegance, Afrofuturist visions, diasporic remixing, and gender-fluid experimentation. From the flowing robes of West African royalty to the generous silhouette of Nigerian Obas [kings], Black African style is not just about formality — it’s about freedom, identity, and a continuation of generations of storytelling.”

The ensemble apparently took 120 hours to create and uses 12m chemically-crushed pleating, made from chiffon in a thorn-tree brown. The undergarment is created in a duchess satin with a boned waist and corseted back. The look was paired with an engineered tulle-and-mesh gele, an occasion-wear headpiece worn primarily by West and Central African women.

Photography: Jun Lu

Jewellery: Ana Khouri

Makeup artist: Danessa Myricks