On October 9, the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced the theme for the 2025 Costume Institute Gala as “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style," which will honor the Black dandy. This is the first time in 20 years that the exhibit will exclusively feature menswear that 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 word “dandy” immediately brings to mind well-dressed men in custom suits from the Harlem Renaissance or Blaxploitation era. Both of these ideas are correct, but Black menswear — and specifically dandyism — is about so much more.
Let us walk you through the etymology, evolution, and importance of the Black dandy before the Met unveils Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.
“Dandy,” a term that goes back to the early 18th century, originated in Europe to describe middle-class men who enjoyed socializing, fine dining, the arts, and generally lavish lifestyles. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, dandy's etymology is believed to come from Scotland, where it was first used in the late 1700s. Others have said the term originates from “dandiprat,” a silver coin slang for an insignificant young person. In London, a dandy was a Victorian social butterfly who enjoyed high society, wore custom trousers, knee breeches, silk ties, overcoats, and top hats. Dandies lived for fashion, but were considered bohemian intellectuals in post-Revolution Paris.
Clothing during this time, as it does now, sent a message. For the early dandies, many of whom were servants, slave owners would dress them in fine attire as a way to signify their wealth and prestige. We see this show throughout the Diaspora in places like England, the Caribbean, and the United States in varying degrees of opulence. But what was initially a sign of bondage and novelty soon became a medium by which the enslaved expressed agency.
In the 20th century, dandyism broadened further 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 them from their homelands and reinforce subservience. A complicated practice, to say the least, this manifested in slaves (in Europe and the Americas) often aspiring to look like members of 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 Met exhibit, Professor Monica L. Miller points out that being a Black dandy went 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’ [dandy] 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," she wrote. "Dandies commit to a study of the fashions that define them, and an examination of the trends around, which they can continually redefine themselves.”
Miller also 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."
Miller is the guest curator for the Met exhibition, and Udé, a Nigerian American artist, will serve as special consultant to the Met exhibition.
Black dandy style has shape-shifted and evolved over the century since it started. What migrated into the 20th century from the Victorian era, like everything in fashion, changed because of sociopolitical dynamics.
The top of the 1900s saw the end of slavery and the beginnings of the Reconstruction era, when Black freedmen were often terrorized and persecuted while trying to assimilate into a new America, particularly in the South. Style of dress for most Black Americans during this time was largely dictated by occupation, social status, and wealth. The traditional dandy uniform of loose blouses, fitted double-breasted jackets, and tailored trousers dictated by livery was relaxed into looser garments for more utilitarian work, but men still wore suits for more formal settings like church.
Moving into the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s, the Harlem Renaissance and Chitlin' Circuit brought back fine tailoring and luxurious fabrics in the form of Zoot suits, which were a sign of rebellion against wartime-government textile regulations. This is the era of iconic figures like Langston Hughes, Cab Calloway, James Baldwin, Sammy Davis Jr, Nat King Cole, who brought exuberance, grace, joy, and debonaire style into the forefront of American culture. We see expressions of dandyism in literature, music, film, art, and performance during this time that would redefine what it meant to be a Black man. On the West Coast, there was also an iteration of these looks with Mexican Pachucos and Pachucas, who also used bold suiting as a way of bucking the system.
Moving into the 1950s and ’60s, menswear started to become fitted and/or preppy, reflecting the postwar collegiate setting in which a lot of young men found themselves. On college campuses, organizations like Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc were embracing regal colors gold, purple, and black as a sense of pride. Some of the markers of this time period — crewnecks, resort shirts, blouson jackets, loafers, polos, and even baseball hats — aligned with an all-American sentiment influenced by the military. These popular styles are still visible today with brands like Brooklyn Circus, Aime Leon Dore, and Ralph Lauren.
The second half of the 20th century brought about flashy Blaxploitation gangster suits in the 1970s, relaxed Miami Vice-inspired suits in the ’80s, monogrammed sets in the '90s (courtesy of Dapper Dan in Harlem), and slim-fit suits from designers like Ozwald Boateng in the 2000s. Dandyism in these three decades was about swagger and decadence — unapologetically confident. Even today we can see the influence of these eras, as on the runways of Pharrell Williams's Louis Vuitton or Ib Kamara for Off White's menswear collections. And dandyism has gone as far as Africa, where colonialism brought a uniform of dress that was reinvented by communities like Congo's La Sape and South Africa's Swenkas.
In recent decades, figures like André Leon Talley, Dapper Dan, Fonzworth Bentley, André 3000, Colman Domingo, and A$AP Rocky have embodied the modernized look of the dandy with the same classic elegance.
On the first Monday in May, we can't wait to see how the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute lays this all to bare. Guests have had months to prepare for the event and there are a plethora of references to — respectfully — pull from. The dress code is Tailored for You, emphasizing the importance of personalized design and tailoring.
What we can expect from the 2025 Met Gala are: suits by Black designers from the US and throughout the African diaspora, vibrant colors, fine tailoring, luxury fabrics, lots of top hats, pinstripes, and great reverence for Black art and expression. Expected guests include the aforementioned Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, Pharrell Williams, A$AP Rocky, LeBron James, Simone Biles, Dapper Dan, Spike Lee, Doechii, Ayo Edebiri, Edward Enninful, Janelle Monáe, Angel Reese, Sha'Carri Richardson, Olivier Rousteing, Tyla, and Usher.
The exhibit will be open May 10 through October 26, 2025 and be broken up into 12 characteristics of dandy expression: Ownership, Presence, Distinction, Disguise, Freedom, Champion, Respectability, Jook, Heritage, Beauty, Cool, and Cosmopolitanism. As reported by Vogue's Leah Faye Cooper, “Ranged throughout will be artifacts—photos of W.E.B. Du Bois; works by Zora Neale Hurston and Nikki Giovanni; archival issues of Jet magazine—and of course, lots of fashion: pieces worn by Frederick Douglass and Harlem Renaissance–era performers, suiting from the wardrobe of André Leon Talley, and designs by Virgil Abloh, Dapper Dan, Foday Dumbuya, and more.”
What we know for sure is that dandies have existed for over 100 years, so stylists and curators have plenty of inspiration to make the evening special. As part of the viewing audience, we look forward to seeing pride exemplified through dress and homage paid to the many, many Black dandies that have come and gone.
.gif)
