Black Dandy Style Explained
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On October 9, the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced the theme for the 2025 Costume Institute Gala as “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style." This will be the first time in twenty years that the exhibit will feature exclusively menswear which has particular resonance with African American history. “I feel that the show itself marks a really important step in our commitment to diversifying our exhibitions and collections, as well as redressing some of the historical biases within our curatorial practice,” lead curator Andrew Bolton said in a statement. “It’s very much about making fashion at The Met more of a gateway to access and inclusivity.”
For many, the immediate thought that comes to mind is well-dressed men in custom suits from maybe the Harlem Renaissance or Blaxploitation era. While both ideas are correct, Black menswear style and specifically dandyism is so much more.
Going back to the early 18th century, "dandy" was a term that originated in Europe to describe middle-class men who enjoyed socializing, fine dining, the arts, and generally lavish lifestyles. In London, they were Victorian social butterflies who, in line with enjoying high society, also wore custom trousers, knee breeches, silk ties, overcoats, and top hats. They lived for fashion but also were considered bohemian intellectuals in post-Revolution Paris.
In the 20th century, dandyism broadened even more when Black servants and former slaves took on the style of dress as a form of rebuttal by assimilation. A tactic of the colonialism project was to change the dress and belief systems of Indigenous people as a way to disconnect from their homelands. Complicated, to say the least, this manifested in slaves (in Europe and the Americas) often aspiring to look like high society as a way to embrace Western culture but also appear as equals to their former white masters.
In her book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, which inspired the exhibit, professor Monica L. Miller notes that being a Black dandy was deeper than clothing.
When thinking about the dandy in general and the black dandy in particular, we must remember that the Oxford English Dictionary defines a fop from the 15th century as one foolishly attentive to and vain of his appearance, dress, or manners, and a dandy by 1780, as one who studies above everything else to dress elegantly and fashionably. Anyone in vogue without a parent strategy, but dandy's commit to a study of the fashions that define them, and an examination of the trends around which they can continually redefine themselves.
Miller further spoke about dandyism in a 2022 interview, saying, “The clothing practice that begins and flourishes in moments of political and cultural transition, dandyism is a powerfully interrogative phenomenon. It questions easy readings of and loyalties to race, gender, sexuality, class, and nation, clothes-wearing men and women — what [Iké] Udé calls a luxurious deliberation of intelligence in the face of boundaries, and I love that phrase, especially in relationship to Andre Leon Talley." Miller is also a guest curator of the exhibit.
Udé, a Nigerian-American artist, will be serving as Special Consultant to the exhibition.
In the century since dandy started, Black dandy style has shape-shifted and evolved. We see it in the 1920s with Chitlin' Circuit zoot suits, the 1970s with flashy Blaxploitation gangsters, the 1990s with monogrammed suits by Dapper Dan in Harlem, and even today on the runways of Pharrell Williams' Louis Vuitton menswear collections. The style has even gone as far as Africa where there is a healthy appreciation for dandy dress and finely tailored safari suits.
Next May, we can't wait to see how the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute lays this all to bear. But curators have plenty of references to the source to make it special.
Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
