Go Inside the Making of Usher’s Fabulous, Feather-Capped Met Gala 2025 Performance Fit

Nine hours from the big event, there are a bevy of questions that still need answering. Do we go with the white, faux fur jacket on top, or the more traditionally dandy boucle with the sequins? Which of the opulent watches works best with these colors? Are these buttons 14- or 24-karat gold? Usher asks if the diamonds adorning him are lab-grown (they are), and chuckles as he mimes conducting an orchestra before learning the official term “baton.”

The rest of the getup includes a custom Stetson bowler on his head and Manolo Blahnik shoes on his feet, the latter of which were decided on via an on-the-fly poll of the room. Usher also went back and forth on whether to spice things up by sticking a massive feather in the hat, ultimately deciding to go full Yankee Doodle Dandy. But the bones of the ensemble were never in doubt: a made-to-measure white suit by Brandon Murphy, which both men agree was designed to “reach beyond the limits of what it is to be sophisticated.”

“I’m a storyteller,” Usher declares. “As an artist, but I’m also a storyteller as the star of the show. For a musical, creative, and theatrical storyteller, this is the recipe for a beautiful historical moment.” With this year’s theme—“Superfine: Tailoring Black Style”—celebrating Black dandyism, Usher wanted his tailoring choices to reflect that. It wasn’t just tapping Murphy and Simmons (both Black) to get him suited and booted. He name-checks Black dandies of yesteryear like Sidney Poitier, Miles Davis, and Ben Vereen as some of his inspirations, and at one point rhetorically asks out loud, “Do I want to be Duke Ellington?”

“This is such an effort on everybody’s part, I want to make sure that everybody is seen and everybody that’s a part of this team, Black or brown, is represented,” Usher says. “There were a lot of ideas. There were tons of sketches that were sent and tons of ideas and even tons of pushback. Everybody that is in this room has given their all.” When curating a Met Gala uniform for someone like Usher—a mononymous celebrity, whose nine Billboard No. 1 hits make him one of a handful of men to ever accomplish that—Murphy knew he’d have to combine sartorial excellence with reverence for the global superstar. “At the beginning of this design process, I thought about how Usher has impacted fashion throughout the decades with his style,” the designer says. “I wanted to bring elements of who he is naturally with his elegance and his talent. ​​So, there’s a bit of history in this look, while also tapping into the modern techniques and ideas that I love to do.”

In Usher’s case, his Met Gala apparel had to mix function with fashion, too. Looking good was only one part of the equation; Murphy also had to make sure the clothing could accommodate mic packs, elaborate dance moves, and the raw energy of an Usher performance. “Yashua, he and I worked on my last tour together, so [he has] an understanding of how the clothing has to move,” Usher explains. “He assisted Brandon in understanding what fabrics he should select, and also the fact that things had to be movable and fabulous at the same time.”