I started writing this some time ago, just as a reflection on the genre of fashion memes and their evolution in the last decade and a half. Then the 2025 Met Gala happened, with its “Tailored for You” dress code inspired by a new exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, called Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, and I had to recalibrate. 

The Met Gala, specifically its red carpet, has become the clearest mirror of the current state of the popular fashion imagination. As other red carpet mainstays like the VMAs and EMAs faded into irrelevance, the Met Gala took their place as the preeminent fashion walk-through. (Fashion weeks are a close second; they still feel too insular, too insider.)

More than just a style showcase, the Met Gala also mirrors the speed at which we now consume, judge and emotionally process images. This is largely thanks to its deep entanglement with meme culture, which the Met Gala has come to wield as a form of soft cultural power. It doesn’t just show fashion – it becomes the discourse.