Marcello Hernández made his Met Gala debut in a Thom Browne look that he said was meant to represent the classical body, a first step into fashion for a comic who admitted he is “not really a fashion guy.” Days before the first Monday in May, Hernández said the whole experience was still new to him, even if the suit fit the night’s Costume Art theme.
The outfit carried more than one personal marker. Hernández said it included an azabacha stone his mother used to put on him as a baby for protection, a larimar stone to honor his Dominican background and a chain in memory of his uncle, who died this year.
“That’s more of a question for Thom Browne,” Hernández said when asked about the look, before adding that he was learning to think differently about clothes. He said he used to wear a blazer all the time when he was starting out in stand-up because he looked up to Johnny Carson, Jerry Seinfeld and Freddie Prinze Sr., all of whom performed in suits. He also said, “This is all kind of new to me. I never thought a lot about clothes, but now I understand that when you’re seeing so many people—like when your parents used to dress you up for the airport—you should wear something nice.”
The Met’s Costume Art exhibit was built around nearly 400 objects from the museum’s archive and the idea of fashion as an embodied art form, which made Hernández’s remarks fit the night’s larger frame even as he sounded surprised by his own place in it. He said clothes depend on the person, joking that not everyone can wear what Jason Momoa wears because “you have to have a motorcycle—I think—to be able to wear some of the stuff that he wears.”
The tension in Hernández’s debut was not whether he could pull off a tuxedo. It was that he was still figuring out what style means to him while stepping into one of fashion’s most watched rooms. He said Kenan Thompson once told him, “Never say something is bad if you don't have a better idea,” and said Jerry Seinfeld told him, “The bad crowds help you edit and the good crowds help you explore.” He added that Colin Jost is “like a financial advisor” to him in some ways, and that his mother’s advice has stayed with him: be nice, and always say thank you and please.
By the end of the night, Hernández’s Met Gala debut had its answer: he was not posing as a fashion insider. He was showing up as himself, with his family, his work and his roots stitched into the look.