The Met Gala’s themes can sometimes be vague, but this year, the Costume Institute benefit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art got far more specific. The night was a celebration of “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” a new exhibition focusing on the Black dandy and its influence on fashion.

The show was guest curated by Monica L. Miller, chair of the Africana studies department at Barnard College, whose 2009 book inspired the collection. At a cocktail party to toast the opening, the stars sported their best take on the Black dandy or, in Kim Kardashian’s case, a quaintrelle.

“I’m not sure how to pronounce it,” Ms. Kardashian said of the term, meaning a woman who uses personal style to emphasize a life of passion, as she walked into the Great Hall of the Met. “I had a vision of a modern-day dandy like Lenny Kravitz, and so that’s who I was inspired by with Chrome Hearts.”

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Lauryn Hill; the pop stars Lisa and Sabrina Carpenter; Al Sharpton and Aisha McShaw; Chappell Roan.

Musicians kept the crowd entertained.