Madonna debuted a stunning new natural look as she attended the 2025 Met Gala on Monday – with fans quipping her ‘face lift had disappeared’.
The 66-year-old pop icon, previously criticized for appearing ‘unrecognizable’ due to her full cheeks and pout in 2023, revealed a breathtaking unedited appearance while dazzling in a luxurious cream silk Tom Ford suit by Haider Ackermann.
Adhering to the event’s Tailored for You theme, the legendary musician showcased her individual style with a double-breasted jacket, white shirt, cummerbund, and bowtie.
The androgynous look was paired with a bold fuchsia lip and smoky eyeliner, while the star puffed on a cigar.
The star’s un-airbrushed look on the red carpet was welcomed by fans who proclaimed her as the ‘GOAT’ and ‘mother.’
She also made a red carpet debut with her much-younger boyfriend Akeem Morris, 29 – with the pair looking loved-up.
The mother-of-six, who was previously married to Guy Ritchie, also had on a white boutonniere.
The duo was first romantically linked in July 2024, as the recording artist shared photos of them celebrating Independence Day in the Big Apple.
But they’ve known each other since at least August 2022, when they posed alongside each other for a Paper magazine cover.
This year’s Met Gala theme is Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, and the dress code Tailored for You.
The concept comes from the Costume Institute’s spring exhibition highlighting black dandyism.
The co-hosts overseeing the glamorous event include actor Colman Domingo, Formula One racer Lewis Hamilton, rapper A$AP Rocky, and musician, as well as Louis Vuitton men’s creative director, Pharrell Williams.
Around 600 people attended, including athletes Simone Biles and Sha’Carri Richardson among them.
The official guest list is customarily kept under wraps, but the information leaked on Monday, hours before stars started arriving.
The A-list lineup is packed with stars like Rihanna, Sydney Sweeney, Hailey Bieber, and Anne Hathaway.
Other Hollywood heavyweights on the list include Gigi Hadid, Demi Moore, and Patrick Schwarzenegger, as well as Bad Bunny, Donatella Versace, Jeremy Allen White, and Suki Waterhouse.
According to biographer Amy Odell, ‘militant’ host Anna Wintour controls every aspect of the guest list, ultimately deciding who is ‘in’ and who is ‘out.’
Kanye West hasn’t been invited since 2022, when Met Gala director Anna vowed to never work with him again after his anti-Semitic rants.
And even before that, he was a habitual Met Gal skipper – his last appearance was actually in 2019 when he attended with his then wife Kim Kardashian.
Earlier this year Kanye seemed to suggest he might crash the Met Gala 2025 after he shared a sketch to X depicting a figure clad in gloves and boots.
Recently Radar Online claimed that Anna was taking the matter seriously after an insider told the publication: ‘Anna is not messing around. There’s a full protocol in place if Kanye is spotted anywhere near the carpet.
‘It’s not just about the outfit – it’s about the chaos he brings. After what happened at the Grammys, no one’s taking chances.’
They added: ‘Anna has made it clear – no drama on her carpet.’
Donald Trump is also very much not welcome at the event with some cultural commentators even remarking that the theme feels very pointed after Trump’s appointment as President.
Emil Wilbekin, assistant professor in the marketing communication department at the Fashion Institute of Technology explained the cultural significance of this year’s theme saying it feels like a ‘resistance’.
He said: ‘With the ‘Superfine’ exhibition happening in this era of [Donald] Trump and anti-DEI, the rolling back of civil rights bills, laws and policies, here comes this exhibition that’s celebrating the very thing being rolled back. It’s a very high and very intellectual form of resistance.’
Anna herself confirmed that he was banned back in 2017 after she told James Corden on an episode of The Late Late Show that he was the one person she would never invite back to the Met Gala.
Trump’s last appearance at The Met Gala with wife Melania was in 2012.
Sex And The City star Sarah Jessica Parker is opting out this year due to work commitments.
Since her first attendance in 1995 the actress, 60, Sarah has been a regular at the annual New York fashion event.
Confirming she won’t be able to fit it in her calendar this year she told Entertainment Tonight: ‘I have to work… but there’s gonna be so much to see and I look forward to seeing what everybody does.
‘And I can’t wait to see how they interpret the theme and the sort of homework they did for the assignment.’
The annual invite-only event has a theme each year, with this year’s theme as ‘Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,’ inspired by Monica Miller’s work, which includes her book Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity.
Monica is the chair of Africana Studies at Barnard College, as well as a professor at the institute.
According to Monica, black dandyism is ‘a strategy and a tool to rethink identity, to reimagine the self in a different context. To really push a boundary – especially during the time of enslavement, to really push a boundary on who and what counts as human, even,’ via Vogue.
The 2025 gala theme focuses on menswear, 22 years after the ‘Men In Skirts’ theme – which was the first gala to focus only on menswear.
