Ciao Beautiful People,
If you haven’t seen the exhibition Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, make sure to visit before it closes, especially if you live nearby in New York.
This groundbreaking exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City details how Dandyism is contained within black fashion. A Dandy is someone who “studies above everything else to dress elegantly and fashionably.” According to The Met, the exhibition is organized into twelve sections that build a specific, but not definitive, vocabulary of Black dandyism inspired by writer Zora Neal Hurston in her 1934 essay “Characteristics of Negro Expression.”
The 2025 Met Gala, as a prelude to the exhibition’s opening, featured Dandyism as its theme for the annual fundraiser. The gala inspired me to create my own dandyism style.
We are showing you some of the exhibition highlights.
This exquisite jockey jacket looks to be screenprinted; however, each strip of fabric is hand-sewn. It can be found in the Champions Section. The level of detail needed to create this flawless jacket is fantastic.
Monica L. Miller served as the guest curator for the exhibition. She is the chair of African Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University. She gives her overview of the exhibit in the video below. She also wrote the groundbreaking book “Slaves to Fashion”.
Beauty Section
In the Beauty section, you will see Prince’s ruffled shirt featured on display.
I laid out above eight pounds of my money for a suit of superfine clothes to dance with at my freedom.
Olaudah Equiano, 1789
The great quote by Olaudah Equiano, which states freedom and liberation, is the inspiration for the exhibition’s title.Equiano’s autobiography is featured in the exhibtion and is shown above.
In the disguise section of the exhibition, the fantastic story of William and Ellen Craft, who wrote a book about their run for freedom, which is highlighted in the exhibition, see below.
Respectability, gallery view
Another favorite was the feature in the Respectability section of Frederick Douglass’s topcoat, hat, sunglasses, and pocketwatch. His attire represented being a free man, and he knew just how important time was to him.
I thought this image was so good because it features men of African ancestry tailoring and crafting bespoke garments.
Tailor boys at work 1899-1900. Platinum print. 7 1/2 × 9 7/16″ (19.1 × 24 cm). Gift of Lincoln Kirstein.
We learned so much in this exhibit that you keep wanting to know more. I bought the book, Slaves to Fashion, from Amazon. To purchase the book by Metropolitan Museum of Art book on the exhibition, you can click this link: Superfine: Tailoring Black Style
Many thanks to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for providing the team with the images from the exhibition in order to write this post.
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