From the as soon as sepia-soaked pages of EBONY to a Wales Bonner runway present, the Black Dandy has lengthy embodied a declaration of autonomy. This 12 months’s Met Costume Institute’s Spring Exhibition theme, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Fashion,” traces the evolution of Black Dandyism.
Visitor-curated by Monica L. Miller, it attracts inspiration from her 2009 guide Slaves to Style, the place she reminds us that the Black Dandy is greater than a trend plate—he’s a disruptor. His Black model is an act of resistance: each satin lining, each paisley pocket sq., a refusal to be invisible. It’s Duke Ellington on a 1952 cowl of EBONY, draped in a smooth, jet-black go well with, cigarette in hand, exuding cool. Adam Clayton Powell Jr., summer season 1967, on a ship in a linen strolling go well with. The Temptations, suited in hunter inexperienced fits with exaggerated checkered lapels in July ’75.
“The crime of trend,” as Miller referred to as it, is the notion that for Black our bodies, to decorate boldly is to defy. A well-cut go well with turns into a quiet riot. A flamboyant aptitude? Radical.
Take a scroll again via the EBONY and JET archives, and also you’ll see the Black Dandy in every single place, as acquainted as a household picture. In reality, you possibly can chart a whole trend (and world) historical past via EBONY covers alone: Sammy Davis Jr., April 1966, shimmering charisma wrapped in peak-lapel polish. MC Hammer, March 1992—loud, luxe, and gloriously extreme in satin and shoulder pads, talking to the surplus of the ’80s. Denzel Washington, 1994: quietly commanding in his signature subdued class. Jay-Z for the “25 Coolest Brothers of All Time” cowl in 2008, in a velvet blazer and shades.
Then got here The Greatest Man forged in November 2013, all black-tie brilliance. And most not too long ago, Lakeith Stanfield for January 2024—in a Concern Of God go well with with a wide-brim hat, calling again to the traditional tailoring of covers from yesterday.
Every cowl, function, editorial and even commercial documented a second within the ongoing evolution of how we use clothes as armor and artwork. In 1981, a function on James Van Der Zee—the godfather of Harlem Renaissance images—supplied a visible touchstone for dandyism. His portraits spoke volumes, capturing the grace and dignity that might encourage future generations of sartorial gown, together with Tyler Mitchell’s work for the accompanying Superfine Exhibition catalogue.
After which there’s André Leon Talley, former New York Editor, the last word Black Dandy. Not solely did he embody dandyism, however his work and phrases spoke to the exuberance of it. In a 1981 trend editorial, “Springing into Colour with Males’s Fashions,” he captured the explosion of shade and innovation in Black males’s model.
An “EBONY Style Truthful” unfold within the October 1976 problem featured the sartorial model of the classical dandy, re-imagined on girls, in three-piece fits, bow ties, and vests—which referred to as to thoughts the dandyism of ladies reminiscent of Gladys Bentley, a Might 1994 cowl with Toni Braxton in a Versace go well with and tie (and Chanel chain belt), and foreshadowed the model of Janelle Monáe within the 2000s.
“EBONY and JET Journal is a continuing reminder that the archive of Black trend already exists. What’s essential is that we noticed and see one another first and that labor itself needs to be acknowledged,” Dr. Rikki Byrd, founding father of the Black Style Archive and Assistant Professor of Visible Tradition Research at The College of Texas at Austin, instructed EBONY. The pages of EBONY have lengthy chronicled not simply the garments, however the tales behind them.
Advertisements from the Eighties, like Johnnie Walker’s tuxedo-clad fashions or 2000’s Stacy Adams Assortment’s new takes on zoot fits, mirrored how manufacturers marketed to us and the significance the Johnsons noticed in displaying an aspirational life-style. And it wasn’t all simply in regards to the stars. The neighborhood dandies—the on a regular basis males photographed in JET or spotlighted in EBONY Style Truthful—daily of Black life and elegance was simply as revered.
Right this moment’s torchbearers—and up to date EBONY cowl stars—carry this legacy with objective. Billy Porter, Brian Tyree Henry, Colman Domingo and Pharrell (co-chairs of this 12 months’s gala) all perceive that model isn’t simply adornment—it’s armor. And because the 2025 Met exhibition locations the Black dandy on the heart of trend’s international dialog, EBONY continues to be the archive and amplifier of this cultural motion.