Model — the sartorial quest for individuality catalyzed by a altering sociocultural panorama — is at stake within the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork’s Costume Institute present Superfine: Tailoring Black Model. The exhibition is impressed by Visitor Curator Dr. Monica L. Miller’s 2009 guide Slaves to Style: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identification, during which she examines the Black Dandy as a Black Atlantic diasporic determine that transcends political, social, and racial hierarchies in historical past, artwork, and literature. By means of a Dandy’s “signature tools” of clothes, gesture, and wit, they problem established notions about race, class, gender, sexuality, and energy. Above all, the Black Dandy offers the Costume Institute with a uncommon alternative to ship an inspiring exhibition that affirms the worth of vogue as a deeply private, introspective, and pragmatic motion.
Superfine is a survey of Black menswear particularly via the prism of Dandyism from the 18th century to at the moment, and flows Dr. Miller’s theories over 12 conceptual and chronological sections, together with “Disguise,” “Heritage,” and “Cool.” It accommodates a plethora of up to date and historic clothes, equipment, work, pictures, drawings, prints, ornamental arts, and archival supplies. Underneath Miller’s curatorial framework, these objects supply perception into Black Dandies’ approaches to sartorial fashion and self-fashioning throughout tumultuous societal and hierarchical adjustments with regard to race. Importantly, this exhibition marks the primary time within the Costume Institute’s historical past that it explicitly engages race, and the primary in over 20 years to deal with menswear. In addition to its cultural significance, it boldly demonstrates vogue’s capability as a method for extraordinary individuals to speak, negotiate, and specific themselves in every day life.
Meissen Manufactory, “Lady with attendant” (c. 1740), hard-paste porcelain; mount of gilt bronze
The opening part, “Ownership,” seems on the origins of the Black Dandy as a type of conspicuous consumption for 18th-century European royalty and rich retailers, who would costume enslaved Black males in ornate clothes to objectify them as “luxury” servants. The part accommodates two 18th-century livery coats, together with one doubtless worn by an enslaved baby; portraits; up to date ensembles by Grace Wales Bonner, Balmain’s Oliver Rousteing, and 3.PARADIS; in addition to ornamental artwork items that firmly encapsulate the exploitative origin of the Black Dandy. That 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 decorative object — which was doubtless distributed, offered, and picked up, most likely positioned atop a mantle or in a show cupboard — is an eerie reminder of the whole disenfranchisement of the Black Dandy in colonial Europe, lowered to an merchandise of ornament.
A later part, entitled “Respectability,” contends with Black Dandies using bespoke fits as a method of gaining respect. This historical past of tailoring unravels from an ensemble worn by Frederick Douglass, together with a shirt and tailcoat, and ends with a recent outfit by Mains, a label based by British-Nigerian rapper Skepta impressed by Nineties and early 2000s hip-hop vogue in addition to collegiate vogue. Certainly, “Respectability” highlights the emergence of Traditionally Black Schools and Universities (HBCUs) within the nineteenth century as one of many sources of this sartorial method; tailoring was a part of their curriculum, as seen in {a photograph} on show of Hampton College college students in a single such course in 1899. A maroon “M” monogrammed wool knit sweater with an identical monogrammed scarf accompanied with a pair of cream trousers designed by James Jeter — a Morehouse graduate and inventive director of Males’s Polo by Ralph Lauren — reinforces the affect of those colleges; it’s drawn from a 2019 capsule assortment primarily based on Twenties–50s HBCU collegiate attire. Taken collectively, the gallery spans the historical past of the idea of “respect” as one thing earned by the profitable development or reconstruction of id from scratch, or no matter is offered at hand.
Set up view of “Beauty” part of Superfine: Tailoring Black Model
“Beauty” offers with Black Dandies’ method to vogue from the Civil Rights Motion to now. Right here, we study concerning the affect of “cultural confidence” from sources such because the “Black is Beautiful” motion and the circulation of Black print media as seen in magazines reminiscent of Ebony and Jet, enabling broader visible and verbal discourse about Black masculinity. Right here, clothes turns into enjoyable — accents reminiscent of material, ruffles, satin, and sequins take entrance and middle in designs from Pyer Moss, LaQuan Smith, and Marvin Desroc. Whereas prior sections handled sobering topics reminiscent of responses to slavery, emancipation, and the Reconstruction period, this part felt profoundly joyful and liberatory, permitting the Black Dandy unhampered aesthetic pleasure.
“Cosmopolitanism,” the ultimate part, seems on the migration and motion of Dandies throughout the globe and contains ensembles by British-Ghanaian Savile Row tailor and designer Ozwald Boateng, in addition to archival supplies from the Pan-African airline Air Afrique (1961–2002). It additionally features a set of customized monogrammed Louis Vuitton baggage owned by former Vogue editor André Leon Talley, paired with a set of TELFAR x Wilsons leather-based carry luggage. The inclusion of those objects sees the exhibition come full circle. Considering again to the primary part, when Dandies have been literal luxurious objects, Talley’s trunks and the Telfar baggage adorned with its signature “TC” brand — derived from its founder, Telfar Clemens — are a shifting reminder that Black Dandies are now not objects of worldliness, however themselves worldly people freely shifting the world over and the Black diaspora, their baggage a marker of non-public conquests.
Telfar luggage and André Leon Talley’s monogrammed baggage
Curatorial and conceptual accomplishments apart, this exhibition couldn’t have come at a greater time. The sector of vogue research has not solely develop into extra world and multicultural, but additionally extra invested within the vital examination of how vogue informs and impacts the lives and identities of extraordinary people. Books reminiscent of Style and On a regular basis Life: London and New York (2017), Style in American Life (2024), and the New York Historic’s exhibition Actual Garments, Actual Ladies (2024–25) are upholding this method. From a enterprise perspective, luxurious vogue gross sales are declining, and luxurious vogue homes are firing and hiring designers at a fee that neither maintains aesthetic continuity nor sparks inspiration for each patrons and admirers. Some vogue homes, reminiscent of Christian Dior, Giorgio Armani, and Yves Saint Laurent, boast their very own museums, the place they’ll dig deep into their archives and increase their historic narratives into numerous exhibitions and publications. However at this stage in vogue historical past, it have to be requested: What extra might yet one more exhibition a couple of ubiquitous model or designer say that hasn’t already been exhausted?
The deal with excessive vogue has created a very saturated and one-note image of vogue historical past. Although it was revealed virtually 20 years in the past, Miller’s guide liberated the Costume Institute from its typical thematic or designer-dedicated exhibitions, pushing it to interact with the what, why, and the way of a particular group of individuals or sort of particular person establishing their sartorial id. Whereas not utterly free from the clutches of luxurious — the exhibition is sponsored by Louis Vuitton and big-name manufacturers take middle stage — I can’t consider any Costume Institute exhibition in current reminiscence that has provided a lot vital and private perception from designers of their wall texts and labels or featured so many up to date designers, and it’s remarkably refreshing! When markets or vogue homes lack stability, private fashion is a type of expression that may keep nimble, adapting in an ever-changing world. Superfine: Tailoring Black Model is a triumph not just for its growth of Black vogue historical past and visible tradition, but additionally for its stirring and substantive method that facilities extraordinary people and their costume practices.
{Photograph} of a tailoring class at Hampton College (1899)
Set up view of “Cool” part of Superfine: Tailoring Black Model
Left: Livery coat and waistcoat (c. 1840); proper: Livery coat, Brooks Brothers (1856–64)
Set up view of “Cosmopolitan” part of Superfine: Tailoring Black Model
Superfine: Tailoring Black Model continues on the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork (1000 Fifth Avenue, Higher East Facet, Manhattan) via October 26. The exhibition was curated by Monica L. Miller and Andrew Bolton.
