THE BIGGEST STARS in Hollywood, music, sports and fashion hit the red carpet on Monday for the Met Gala, the extravagant Manhattan fundraiser that this year spotlit the subversive style of Black dandyism.

The blockbuster night’s theme explored the sharply tailored dandy aesthetic and its rich, complicated history. It also celebrates the opening of a corresponding exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute.

But for the fashionistas, the Met Gala – always the first Monday in May – is one of the world’s top red carpets with blinding star power.

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Oscar-nominated actor Colman Domingo and Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton, two of the co-chairs of fashion’s marquee event, were among the early arrivals alongside gala supremo Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue.

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Domingo paid tribute to the late Andre Leon Talley, Vogue’s first Black creative director and one of fashion’s towering figures, in a royal blue Valentino cape with a glittering white collar over a snazzy black and gold jacket and gray tweed trousers.

Hamilton meanwhile wowed in a sharp cream suit and matching backwards cap, diamonds glittering in his ears, as well as on his lapel, cuffs and hands.

And musician and designer Pharrell Williams, another co-chair, looked snappy in a short, pearl-encrusted white jacket and flared black tuxedo trousers.

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Tailored suits, bejeweled brooches, canes and jaunty hats were de rigueur for the men.

Among the women in attendance, actor Teyana Taylor definitely understood the assignment, arriving in a black suit with red pinstripes and matching huge red coat, the back fully pleated and “Harlem Rose” embossed in the fabric.

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Rapper Doechii wore a logo-heavy Louis Vuitton cream shorts suit with burgundy accents, a cigar dangling between her lips.

And actor Zendaya, always a huge hit at the gala, stunned in a slim white suit and dramatic brimmed hat – perhaps some bridal chic now that she is engaged to Tom Holland?

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Last to arrive at the party was Rihanna, cradling her new baby bump in an all-black ensemble after revealing she was pregnant as the event began.

Her partner A$AP Rocky, a gala co-chair, confirmed the pregnancy on the carpet: “I’m glad everybody’s happy for us because we’re definitely happy.”

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Former US vice president Kamala Harris skipped the red carpet, but attended the gala in an understated black and cream gown from Off-White.

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‘New sense of importance’

The gala comes five years after the enormous anti-racist uprising of the Black Lives Matter movement, which pushed a number of cultural institutions in the United States to grapple with their representation of race and diversity.

This Met theme is years in the making but now coincides with Donald Trump’s recent efforts to quash institutional initiatives to promote diversity – a push to keep culture and history defined on the Republican president’s terms.

The Met Gala and its exhibit, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” promises a sharp contrast to that notion, a deep dive into Black dandyism from the 18th century to today.

“Obviously, this exhibition was planned many years ago, and we didn’t know what would be happening in the political arena, but it’s taken on a new sense of importance and purpose,” Wintour told AFP.

Subversion

Guest curator and Barnard professor Monica Miller’s book “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity” was the Met’s inspiration.

Her book details how dandyism was a style imposed on Black men in 18th century Europe, when well-dressed “dandified” servants became a trend.

But Black men throughout history subverted the concept as a means of cultivating power, transforming aesthetic and elegance into a means of identity establishment and social mobility.

During the vibrant Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s, men wore sharp suits and polished shoes as a show of defiance in racially segregated America.

“Superfine” is a rare Costume Institute exhibition to spotlight men and male fashion, and the first to focus on Black designers and artists.

The Met Gala was first organized in 1948 and for decades was reserved for New York high society – until Wintour transformed the party into a high-profile catwalk for the rich and famous in the 1990s.

It remains a fundraiser for the Costume Institute. The famed Manhattan museum said Monday it expected to rake in $31 million this year.