Black dandy fashion with intention at The Met Gala
There couldn’t have been a more controversial Met Gala. Attended by the brightest stars of film, music, art, sports and fashion, the theme was “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” which is also the title of the exhibit of the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute, the event’s beneficiary. The subject of the show was conceived since 2021 after the anti-racist uprising of the Black Lives Matter movement and was announced last October when Kamala Harris, the first female vice president and the first Black woman to top a major-party ticket, was running for president.
Last Monday, however, when the Gala finally took place, it found itself in a totally new political environment under president-elect Donald Trump who leads a federal government determined to quash institutional initiatives that promote diversity as well as race-related programming.
This did not stop the guests from supporting the annual event and Kamala Harris was even the surprise guest of the evening. The gala, of course, “was never about politics, not in conception, not now. It’s about self-determination, beauty, creativity and holding up a lens to history,” says Anna Wintour, chair of the event and Vogue editor-in-chief. She acknowledges, however, that the Met’s recognition of the contributions of Black designers and the Black community in fashion has “a heightened meaning in 2025.”
The history of Black style spanning over 300 years is presented in the exhibit through the concept of dandyism which was once used to describe aristocratic style, but the term later evolved with the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Guest curator Monica L. Miller writes in her book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity that in 18th c. England, Black servants were in exquisite “dandified” clothing but were forced to wear gold, brass and silver collars with padlocks to signify their owners’ wealth. This imposed style was remade by Black aesthetes into a tool of social mobility and self-definition when they arrived in America, adding their own flair to their tailored Sunday best looks for church or holidays. Post-emancipation, they reclaimed their autonomy, paving the way for the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s -‘30s, a time of living and dressing boldly as women dressed in furs and beaded dresses and men experimented with tailored suits, billowing silhouettes, fedora hats and two-toned oxfords. The zoot suit with high-waisted draped pants and oversized jackets with large shoulder and lapels was a prominent style that emerged as a garment of protest and identity when 1940s riots saw US service members attacking zoot-suited Blacks and Mexican Americans.
The definition of the dandy today is someone dedicated to dress as a discipline, often showing up in tailored clothes, but it has also become more casual, free and fluid—from the “ascot dandy” to the “sweatshirt dandy,” says menswear legend Dapper Dan. “Ultimately it’s someone who wants to use clothes as armor in a manner to impact the way in which people perceive them and fight stereotypes that are sometimes rooted in racism,” says Aria Hughes, editor-in chief of Complex.
There was certainly a lot of inspiration to work on, as seen on the red carpet which was actually blue. Zoot suits and other styles of suiting were reinterpreted in various ways, from ultra-fitted to oversized. Fil-American singer Nicole Scherzinger, recently nominated for a Tony for Sunset Boulevard, turned the suit into a gown with beaded pinstripes and black opera coat by Prabal Gurung. Tails, capes and lots of trains surfaced, the longest at 18 feet belonging to Diana Ross, requiring eight men to assist her up the stairs. Many like Sabrina Carpenter and Lisa of Blackpink, both in Louis Vuitton, opted to do the no-pants trend to make the ascent easier. Transformations added drama, the way Colman Domingo’s royal blue cape revealed a windowpane check suit with the largest cabbage rose, designed by Alessandro Michele at Valentino. Josephine Baker’s 1920s sculptural hairdos and gelled, face-framing curls were favorite pegs. Wide-brimmed hats and small boaters completed otherwise minimalist looks, as did jewelry in all forms, from multiple brooches and swags of necklaces, to rings and chains.
Pharrell Williams, creative director of Louis Vuitton menswear and Met Gala co-chair, had a deceptively minimal look of white double-breasted blazer topping black flared dress trousers, until the cameras zoomed in to reveal a multitude of pearls—100,000 to be exact—requiring 980 hours of work. Pearls have always been his thing, embellishing clothes, jewelry and even spectacles. “To me, dandyism is about intentionality— a sport of getting dressed,” Williams told Vogue in an interview. “It’s not just about dressing well. It’s about using style as a form of self-expression and freedom. I see dandyism as a set of rules and standards that reflect a certain sophistication and well-traveled taste. For Black people to hit that mark or exceed it and be consistent with it is a matter of pride. And consistency garners respect.”
He certainly epitomizes the modern dandy and is a source of pride for the Black community, which he always champions with his work and advocacies.
