Why Sydney Sweeney Paid Homage to Kim Novak at the 2025 Met Gala

Actor Sydney Sweeney arrived at the 2025 Met gala Monday evening in a black sparkly Miu Miu gown that pays homage to Vertigo star Kim Novak.

Sweeney’s gown is reminiscent of a memorable gown with a similar circular neckline and brooch that Novak wore in Robert Aldrich’s 1967 film The Legend of Lylah Clare. Back then, Novak was riffing on the sparkly dress and brooch that Joan Crawford had worn in The Bride Wore Red (1937).

Sweeney teased what was to come by posting that photo of Novak to her Instagram stories. She is set to play Novak in the upcoming drama Scandalous, the directorial debut of Met gala co-chair Colman Domingo about the Jim Crow-era affair between Novak and singer Sammy Davis Jr. in the 1950s.

This year’s Met gala celebrates the opening of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2025 costume exhibit on Black dandyism, and Essence calls Davis “the embodiment of Black dandyism.”

Davis and Novak met on The Steve Allen Show, where they were appearing as guests. He was so smitten that he showed up to the set of Vertigo and offered to take pictures. According to Laurence Leamer’s recent book Hitchcock’s Blondes, as Davis shot closeups, Novak asked, “‘Did you ever think of taking off the lens cover?’” 

As TIME reported, Harry Cohn, the head of Columbia Pictures, “broke up the romance of Sammy Davis Jr. and Kim Novak by having a thug threaten to work Sammy over.” Cohn was terrified that theaters would not show a film starring a white actress dating a Black man.

Davis ended up marrying chorus girl Loray White in 1958, and Novak married actor Richard Johnson in 1965.