Style — the sartorial quest for individuality catalyzed by a changing sociocultural landscape — is at stake in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute show Superfine: Tailoring Black Style. The exhibition is inspired by Guest Curator Dr. Monica L. Miller’s 2009 book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, in which she examines the Black Dandy as a Black Atlantic diasporic figure that transcends political, social, and racial hierarchies in history, art, and literature. Through a Dandy’s “signature tools” of clothing, gesture, and wit, they challenge established notions about race, class, gender, sexuality, and power. Above all, the Black Dandy provides the Costume Institute with a rare opportunity to deliver an inspiring exhibition that affirms the value of fashion as a deeply personal, introspective, and pragmatic action.
Superfine is a survey of Black menswear specifically through the prism of Dandyism from the 18th century to today, and flows Dr. Miller’s theories over 12 conceptual and chronological sections, including “Disguise,” “Heritage,” and “Cool.” It contains a plethora of contemporary and historic garments, accessories, paintings, photographs, drawings, prints, decorative arts, and archival materials. Under Miller’s curatorial framework, these objects offer insight into Black Dandies’ approaches to sartorial style and self-fashioning during tumultuous societal and hierarchical changes with regard to race. Importantly, this exhibition marks the first time in the Costume Institute’s history that it explicitly engages race, and the first in over 20 years to focus on menswear. Besides its cultural significance, it boldly demonstrates fashion’s capacity as a means for ordinary people to communicate, negotiate, and express themselves in daily life.
The opening section, “Ownership,” looks at the origins of the Black Dandy as a form of conspicuous consumption for 18th-century European royalty and wealthy merchants, who would dress enslaved Black men in ornate garments to objectify them as “luxury” servants. The section contains two 18th-century livery coats, including one likely worn by an enslaved child; portraits; contemporary ensembles by Grace Wales Bonner, Balmain’s Oliver Rousteing, and 3.PARADIS; as well as decorative art pieces that firmly encapsulate the exploitative origin of the Black Dandy. This is epitomized in a gilded bronze 18th-century porcelain sculpture titled “Lady with attendant,” depicting an ostentatiously dressed White “lady” being waited on by a small, well-dressed “blackamoor.” This ornamental object — which was likely distributed, sold, and collected, probably placed atop a mantle or in a display cabinet — is an eerie reminder of the complete disenfranchisement of the Black Dandy in colonial Europe, reduced to an item of decoration.
A later section, entitled “Respectability,” contends with Black Dandies employing bespoke suits as a means of gaining respect. This history of tailoring unravels from an ensemble worn by Frederick Douglass, including a shirt and tailcoat, and ends with a contemporary outfit by Mains, a label founded by British-Nigerian rapper Skepta inspired by 1990s and early 2000s hip-hop fashion as well as collegiate fashion. Indeed, “Respectability” highlights the emergence of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the 19th century as one of the sources of this sartorial approach; tailoring was part of their curriculum, as seen in a photograph on display of Hampton University students in one such course in 1899. A maroon “M” monogrammed wool knit sweater with a matching monogrammed scarf accompanied with a pair of cream trousers designed by James Jeter — a Morehouse graduate and creative director of Men’s Polo by Ralph Lauren — reinforces the influence of these schools; it is drawn from a 2019 capsule collection based on 1920s–50s HBCU collegiate apparel. Taken together, the gallery spans the history of the concept of “respect” as something earned by the successful construction or reconstruction of identity from scratch, or whatever is available at hand.
“Beauty” deals with Black Dandies’ approach to fashion from the Civil Rights Movement to now. Here, we learn about the impact of “cultural confidence” from sources such as the “Black is Beautiful” movement and the circulation of Black print media as seen in magazines such as Ebony and Jet, enabling broader visual and verbal discourse about Black masculinity. Here, clothing becomes fun — accents such as drapery, ruffles, satin, and sequins take front and center in designs from Pyer Moss, LaQuan Smith, and Marvin Desroc. While prior sections dealt with sobering subjects such as responses to slavery, emancipation, and the Reconstruction era, this section felt profoundly joyful and liberatory, allowing the Black Dandy unhampered aesthetic pleasure.
“Cosmopolitanism,” the final section, looks at the migration and movement of Dandies across the globe and includes ensembles by British-Ghanaian Savile Row tailor and designer Ozwald Boateng, as well as archival materials from the Pan-African airline Air Afrique (1961–2002). It also includes a set of custom monogrammed Louis Vuitton luggage owned by former Vogue editor André Leon Talley, paired with a set of TELFAR x Wilsons leather carry bags. The inclusion of these objects sees the exhibition come full circle. Thinking back to the first section, when Dandies were literal luxury objects, Talley’s trunks and the Telfar luggage adorned with its signature “TC” logo — derived from its founder, Telfar Clemens — are a moving reminder that Black Dandies are no longer objects of worldliness, but themselves worldly individuals freely moving across the world and the Black diaspora, their luggage a marker of personal conquests.
Curatorial and conceptual accomplishments aside, this exhibition could not have come at a better time. The field of fashion studies has not only become more global and multicultural, but also more invested in the critical examination of how fashion informs and impacts the lives and identities of ordinary individuals. Books such as Fashion and Everyday Life: London and New York (2017), Fashion in American Life (2024), and the New York Historical’s exhibition Real Clothes, Real Women (2024–25) are upholding this approach. From a business perspective, luxury fashion sales are declining, and luxury fashion houses are firing and hiring designers at a rate that neither maintains aesthetic continuity nor sparks inspiration for both buyers and admirers. Some fashion houses, such as Christian Dior, Giorgio Armani, and Yves Saint Laurent, boast their own museums, where they can dig deep into their archives and expand their historical narratives into countless exhibitions and publications. But at this stage in fashion history, it must be asked: What more could yet another exhibition about a ubiquitous brand or designer say that hasn’t already been exhausted?
The focus on high fashion has created an overly saturated and one-note picture of fashion history. Though it was published almost 20 years ago, Miller’s book liberated the Costume Institute from its typical thematic or designer-dedicated exhibitions, pushing it to engage with the what, why, and how of a specific group of people or type of person constructing their sartorial identity. While not completely free from the clutches of luxury — the exhibition is sponsored by Louis Vuitton and big-name brands take center stage — I cannot think of any Costume Institute exhibition in recent memory that has offered so much critical and personal insight from designers in their wall texts and labels or featured so many contemporary designers, and it is remarkably refreshing! When markets or fashion houses lack stability, personal style is a form of expression that can stay nimble, adapting in an ever-changing world. Superfine: Tailoring Black Style is a triumph not only for its expansion of Black fashion history and visual culture, but also for its stirring and substantive approach that centers ordinary individuals and their dress practices.
Superfine: Tailoring Black Style continues at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1000 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan) through October 26. The exhibition was curated by Monica L. Miller and Andrew Bolton.
