Why actor Damson Idris turned up in race suit to Met Gala as fans left shocked over stunt

Damson Idris certainly caught people's attention when he rocked up to the Met Gala red carpet tonight, but he also left many people scratching their heads.

The actor arrived at the 2025 Met Gala wearing a white race suit and bejewelled helmet, with the outfit then pulled off to reveal a smart bright red suit.

"Wtf," one wrote on X, confused by the stunt, as another said: "Okkk wtv this meanss!!"

A third asked: "I’m sorry but who is this?"

And a fourth added: "It is getting weirder and weirder…"

Damson Idris turned heads at this year's Met Gala (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)

It all becomes clear, however, when you realise the film Idris is about to hit cinemas with: F1, a sports action flick starring Brad Pitt as Formula One driver Sonny Hayes as he trains up rookie prodigy Joshua 'Noah' Pearce (Idris).

This year's theme is ‘Tailored For You’, launching the Met’s new exhibition, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, which takes the Black dandy as its central subject and is inspired by co-curator Monica Miller’s 2009 book Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity.

So far, we've not been disappointed, with everything from Diana Ross in a gigantic fur-trimmed cape to Zendaya out-memeing herself in a giant hat.

“Dandyism can seem frivolous, but it often poses a challenge to or a transcendence of social and cultural hierarchies,” co-curator Miller said ahead of the event.

“It asks questions about identity, representation, and mobility in relation to race, class, gender, sexuality, and power.

His race suit appears to be a nod to his upcoming movie, F1 (Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)

“The exhibition explores this concept as both a pronouncement and a provocation. The exhibition title refers to ‘superfine’ not only as the quality of a particular fabric - 'superfine wool’ - but also as a particular attitude related to feeling especially good in one’s own body, in clothes that express the self.

“Wearing superfine and being superfine are, in many ways, the subject of this exhibition. And the separateness, distinction, and movement between these two states of ‘being’ in the African diaspora from the 1780s to today animates the show.”