Everyone Loves Chris 📸 James Dylan After seeing Rock performing Selective Outrage, Hearst said, "Nothing is more sexy and simultaneously brings trepidation like a white suede suit. So, for a brilliant mind such as Chris, a white suede would be right. I see him as a prophet of our times, someone with the ability to put his finger on the Zeitgeist of our current culture. We wanted the design to feel exactly how Chris' personality is. He is someone so sophisticated but at the same time he's casual. So, we wanted the classic shape of the tailoring, but it had to have the ease that defines Chris' style. The idea of having it impeccable, crisp and sharp is exactly what Chris' humor is." Chris Rock wears a custom white suede tailored single-breasted blazer with seamless bonding and pick-stitch detail, straight fit trouser, lightweight cashmere stand-collar buttoned shirt, and Ohio slip-on sneaker in white textured leather with whipstitch lacing and embroidery detail. With this idea of developing a white suit, Dr. Smith and Dr. Byrd shared the work and imagery of Harlem Renaissance performer Gladys Bentley and her impeccable white tailoring, as well as the powerful life-sized self-portrait of visual artist Barkley L. Hendricks, in which he wears a perfectly tailored white suit. In the 1970s, Hendricks produced a series of portraits of young black men, usually placed against monochromatic backdrops, that captured their self-assurance and confident sense of style. @chrisrock Styling by @chloehartstein — For this year’s Met Gala, the Gabriela Hearst team consulted with Dr. Cherise Smith, the Joseph D. Jamail Chair in African American Studies in the Department African & African Diaspora Studies, and with Dr. Rikki Byrd, Assistant Professor of Visual Culture Studies in the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin on the historical context of Black dandyism, and its significance asa repurposing, a refashioning and a rebuke against the status quo. @profcsmith @rikkibyrd