Dear Shaded Viewers,
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2025 Costume Institute exhibition, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, offers a timely exploration of Black dandyism and its role in shaping Black identities over the past three centuries. Opening May 10 and running through October 26, the exhibition traces the evolution of Black style from its origins in 18th-century Enlightenment Europe-where dandyism was initially imposed on enslaved Black individuals as a symbol of their owners’ wealth-to its transformation into a powerful form of self-expression, social resistance, and cultural distinction within the Black diaspora.
Curated by Monica L. Miller and inspired by her 2009 book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, the exhibition presents over 200 garments and artifacts, including historic pieces like Frederick Douglass’s waistcoats, Dapper Dan’s iconic leather jacket, and André Leon Talley’s custom luggage and caftan. These objects illustrate how Black dandies have used fashion not only as an aesthetic but also as a strategic tool to assert autonomy, challenge racial stereotypes, and claim visibility and respect within societies shaped by race, gender, class, and sexuality.
The exhibition is organized into twelve thematic sections-such as Ownership, Respectability, Heritage, and Cosmopolitanism-that collectively reveal how style functions as a mode of distinction and resistance. It highlights the dynamic interplay between African and European sartorial traditions and celebrates the ongoing influence of Black designers and cultural figures in fashion, from historical icons to contemporary visionaries like Louis Vuitton’s Pharrell Williams and designers such as Wales Bonner and Telfar.
Later,
Diane
