Style is without doubt one of the strongest instruments we have now for understanding ourselves and the world round us. Nowhere is that this clearer than within the story of Black American tailoring and the legacy of the Black dandy.
Impressed by scholar Monica L. Miller’s groundbreaking guide Slaves to Style: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Id, the theme of the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork’s Costume Institute spring 2025 present is Superfine: Tailoring Black Type.
The exhibition charts the evolution of the Black dandy from the 18th century to at present. The story it tells is about greater than fits. It’s about energy, satisfaction, resistance and pleasure.
Annually, the Met Gala takes its gown code from the institue’s spring exhibition. This yr’s is “Tailor-made for You.” So who’s the Black dandy, why are they so essential to style at present, and what can we anticipate to see on the purple carpet?
The delivery of the Black Dandy
“Black dandy” is a contemporary time period. Figures like American abolitionist Frederick Douglass (1818–95) or Haitian revolutionary chief Toussaint Louverture (1743–1803) wouldn’t have known as themselves dandies, however they used fashion with related impact: as a software of resistance, self-fashioning and cultural satisfaction.
French poet Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) first wrote about dandies in 1863, describing them as people who elevate fashion to a type of private and aesthetic resistance.
Baudelaire’s dandy was not simply trendy however symbolic. He was an emblem of modernity itself: a time marked by fluid identities, liminal areas and the collapse of clear boundaries between gender, authenticity and social order.
Dandyism amongst Black males took root within the 18th and nineteenth centuries in each the USA and the Caribbean. Tailoring grew to become a strategy to reclaim dignity below enslavement and colonialism.
Dandies take the clothes of an oppressor – aristocratic, colonial, segregationist or in any other case – and switch it right into a weapon of class. By means of meticulous fashion and refinement, dandies make a silent but putting declare to ethical superiority.
Douglass famously appeared in immaculate Victorian fits when campaigning for abolition, consciously dressing in the identical fashion as those that denied his freedom.
Louverture used completely tailor-made French army uniforms through the Haitian Revolution in opposition to French colonial rule.
Within the Nineteen Twenties, Harlem dandies wore effective tailoring and flamboyant colors, rejecting the concept that poverty or discrimination ought to dictate presentation.
In completely tied cravats, polished sneakers and sharply tailor-made coats, Black dandies refashion energy on their very own phrases.
Presence via fashion
Dandies additionally problem the slim guidelines of masculinity.
Typical menswear usually calls for restraint, toughness and invisibility. Dandies dare to embrace magnificence, self-adornment and efficiency. This masculinity might be expressive, artistic and even flamboyant.
The luxurious silk fits and punctiliously groomed look of American Jazz pioneer Duke Ellington (1899–1974) projected glamour somewhat than austerity.
The elegantly tailor-made overcoats and scarves of American poet Langston Hughes (1901–67) recommended a masculinity deeply entwined with creativity and softness.
Figures in Harlem’s ballrooms and jazz golf equipment blurred gender boundaries many years earlier than mainstream conversations about gender fluidity emerged.
A practice of Black tailoring
In a world the place Black self-presentation has lengthy been scrutinised and politicised, tailor-made clothes asserted visibility, authority and artistry. Dandies reworked style right into a political declaration of dignity, resistance and inventive energy.
Black American tailoring practices blossomed most visibly within the zoot fits of the Harlem Renaissance, although in addition they had robust roots in New Orleans, Chicago and the Caribbean.
As seen within the Sunday Better of the Civil Rights period, Black tailoring walked the road between resistance and celebration: lovely however with clear political intent.
Within the Nineteen Seventies, the Black dandy grew to become extra flamboyant, carrying tight, vibrant garments with daring equipment. He reworked conventional fits with exaggerated shapes, shiny patterns and plaids impressed by African heritage.
Artists widespread with a white viewers like Sammy Davis Jr (1925–90), Miles Davis (1926–91) and James Brown (1933–2006) embraced the aesthetic, contributing to its widespread acceptance.
In the meantime, an excellent trendy contingent of Black males within the Congo, La Sapeur, refined their look so spectacularly they’d change into the benchmark of the Black dandy for generations to return.
The Nineteen Nineties noticed a brand new period of Black dandyism emerge via luxurious sportswear and hip-hop aesthetics.
Designer Dapper Dan (1944–) revolutionised style by remixing luxurious logos into daring, customized streetwear, creating a particular Black aesthetic that bridged hip-hop tradition and excessive style.
Musician Andre 3000 (1975–) redefined menswear by mixing Southern Black fashion with daring color, classic tailoring and theatrical aptitude.
As we speak, the custom thrives within the fashion of influencer Knowledge Kaye, the class of LeBron James, and the risk-taking of Lewis Hamilton.
Dressing for the purple carpet
Tailor-made for You invitations visitors to interpret the dandy’s legacy in private, daring and boundary-pushing methods.
Whether or not conforming to custom, subverting expectations or creating one thing solely new, this theme is a celebration of the liberty to decorate – and be – by yourself phrases.
The Black dandy is a determine of defiance and want, of ambiguity and brilliance, of resistance and wonder. Dandyism blurs boundaries between masculinity and femininity, artifice and authenticity, conformity and rebel. It unsettles fastened identities and displays broader tensions inside trendy life.
Black dandies have shocked, amused, offended, delighted and impressed society since their inception. Within the sharp defiance of Douglass’ Victorian fits, the flamboyant spectacle of Harlem ballrooms, and the logo-laced rebel of Dapper Dan’s streetwear, the Black dandy has frequently pressured the world to reckon with the politics of presence, satisfaction and efficiency.
Regardless of being neglected by mainstream style historical past, they’ve formed the way in which we see class, masculinity and self-expression. This Met Gala and the accompanying exhibition will not be only a celebration – they’re a long-overdue recognition.
Toby Slade, Affiliate Professor of Style, College of Expertise Sydney and Dijanna Mulhearn, PhD Candidate, College of Design. Creator of Purple Carpet Oscars, College of Expertise Sydney
This text is republished from The Dialog below a Artistic Commons license. Learn the authentic article.
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