See inside "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style," the Met's new spring exhibit
Opening on May 10 in the Met's Cantor Exhibition Hall, the program, linked to tonight's Met Gala ceremony, is more than a fashion retrospective: it's a sensory experience that feels like stepping into someone's memory, someone's vision, someone's mirror.
Curated by Monica L. Miller (author of Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity), alongside Andrew Bolton, the head curator of the Anna Wintour Costume Center at the museum, the show threads together over 250 years of style, swagger and statement-making, from 18th-century dandies to 2025 red carpet icons.
Let's just say it: this is one of the Met's coolest shows in years.
The title 'Superfine' nods to both the luxurious superfine wool used in classic suiting and the feeling you get when you look good— really good. And, inside the space, it's hard not to feel exactly that. The first thing you'll notice upon entering isn't a mannequin or a text panel—it's scale. Artist Torkwase Dyson's towering black sculptural 'hypershapes' dominate the gallery like abstract monuments, creating 'architectural zones' that challenge how we move through fashion. You don't just look at the garments, you enter their respective orbits.
Between Dyson's structures, you'll spot a top hat from 1855 next to a 2024 suit by Who Decides War; jockey silks across from Walt Frazier's Puma-covered Jet spread; and a Ralph Lauren ensemble from the Morehouse-Spelman capsule resting feet from André Leon Talley's own sharply tailored suit. It's a remix of the past and present that feels deeply intentional and, somehow, deeply personal.
And then there are the heads. Sculptor Tanda Francis's bespoke mannequin heads anchor the looks with regal, haunting presence. One echoes the face of Congolese revolutionary André Grenard Matswa, crowned in silhouetted profiles that evoke ancestry and legacy all at once.
The exhibition is divided into 12 thematic zones. Among them: "ownership," "disguise," "champion," "beauty" and "cool," for example.
In "disguise," we learn about Ellen and William Craft, the enslaved couple who dressed as a white man and his servant to escape to freedom. In "champion," 1970s track suits are shown alongside Olympic gear and magazine covers that cemented athletes like Walt Frazier and LeBron James as cultural tastemakers. In "beauty," designers like LaQuan Smith and Theophilio usher in a glam, gender-bending moment of sequins, lace and unflinching self-love.
These garments aren't just fashion—they're resistance, reinvention and reclamation. And while the show is centered on menswear, gender here is fluid, stylized and defiant. As Olympian Sha'Carri Richardson, a Met Gala host committee member, put it, 'Our style isn't just what we wear—it's how we move, how we own our space.'
While an invite to the Met Gala tonight (theme: 'Tailored for You,' a wink to the show's suiting theme and an invitation for attendees to remix the rules), would be nice, you really don't need a $75,000 table to feel the vibe. Walk the Met galleries and you'll hear it for yourself: the rustle of silk, the shine of patent leather and the quiet power of pose.
In a city where the corner bodega is just as much a runway as the Met steps, the exhibit feels like a long-overdue tribute to the people who've made style a language of survival and joy. New York's fashion scene owes much of its edge and elegance to Black style, and this show just gives it the Met's highest platform.
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The Independent
44 minutes ago
- The Independent
Ozzy Osbourne, godfather of heavy metal who led Black Sabbath, dies at 76
Ozzy Osbourne, the gloomy, demon-invoking lead singer of the pioneering band Black Sabbath who became the throaty, growling voice — and drug-and-alcohol ravaged id — of heavy metal, died Tuesday, just weeks after his farewell show. He was 76. Either clad in black or bare-chested, the singer was often the target of parents' groups for his imagery and once caused an uproar for biting the head off a bat. Later, he would reveal himself to be a doddering and sweet father on the reality TV show 'The Osbournes.' Black Sabbath's 1969 self-titled debut LP has been likened to the Big Bang of heavy metal. It came during the height of the Vietnam War and crashed the hippie party, dripping menace and foreboding. The band's second album, 'Paranoid,' included such classic tunes as 'War Pigs,' 'Iron Man' and 'Fairies Wear Boots.' The song 'Paranoid' only reached No. 61 on the Billboard Hot 100 but became in many ways the band's signature song. Both albums were voted among the top 10 greatest heavy metal albums of all time by readers of Rolling Stone magazine. 'Black Sabbath are the Beatles of heavy metal. Anybody who's serious about metal will tell you it all comes down to Sabbath,' Dave Navarro of the band Jane's Addiction wrote in a 2010 tribute in Rolling Stone. Sabbath fired Osbourne in 1979 for his legendary excesses, like showing up late for rehearsals and missing gigs. He reemerged the next year as a solo artist with 'Blizzard of Ozz' and the following year's 'Diary of a Madman,' both hard rock classics that went multi-platinum and spawned enduring favorites such as 'Crazy Train,' 'Goodbye to Romance,' 'Flying High Again' and 'You Can't Kill Rock and Roll.' Osbourne was twice inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — once with Sabbath in 2006 and again in 2024 as a solo artist. The original Sabbath lineup reunited for the first time in 20 years in July 2025 in the U.K. for what Osbourne said was his final concert. 'Let the madness begin!' he told 42,000 fans. Metallica, Guns N Roses, Slayer, Tool, Pantera, Gojira, Alice in Chains, Lamb of God, Halestorm, Anthrax, Rival Sons and Mastodon did sets. Tom Morello, Steven Tyler, Billy Corgan, Ronnie Wood, Travis Barker, Sammy Hagar, Yungblud and Vernon Reid made appearances. Osbourne embodied the excesses of metal. His outlandish exploits included relieving himself on the Alamo, snorting a line of ants off a sidewalk and, most memorably, biting the head off a live bat that a fan threw onstage during a 1981 concert. (He said he thought it was rubber.) Osbourne was sued in 1987 by parents of a 19-year-old teen who died by suicide while listening to his song 'Suicide Solution.' The lawsuit was dismissed. Osbourne said the song was really about the dangers of alcohol, which caused the death of his friend Bon Scott, lead singer of AC/DC. Then-Cardinal John J. O'Connor of New York claimed in 1990 that Osbourne's songs led to demonic possession and even suicide. 'You are ignorant about the true meaning of my songs,' the singer wrote back. 'You have also insulted the intelligence of rock fans all over the world.' Audiences at Osbourne shows could be mooned or spit on by the singer, but the Satan-invoking Osbourne would usually send the crowds home with their ears ringing and a hearty 'God bless!' He started an annual tour — Ozzfest — in 1996 after he was rejected from the lineup of what was then the top touring music festival, Lollapalooza. Ozzfest would host such bands as Slipknot, Tool, Megadeth, Rob Zombie, System of a Down, Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park. In 2013, he reunited with Black Sabbath for the dour, raw '13,' which reached No. 1 on the U.K. Albums Chart. In 2019, he had a Top 10 hit when featured on Post Malone's 'Take What You Want,' Osbourne's first song in the Top 10 since 1989. In 2020, he released the album 'Ordinary Man,' which had as its title song a duet with Elton John. 'I've been a bad guy, been higher than the blue sky/And the truth is I don't wanna die an ordinary man,' he sang. In 2022, he landed his first career back-to-back No. 1 rock radio singles from his album 'Patient Number 9,' which featured collaborations with Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Robert Trujillo and Duff McKagan. t earned four Grammy nominations, winning two. (Osbourne won five Grammys over his lifetime.) At the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2024, Jack Black called him 'greatest frontman in the history of rock 'n' roll' and 'the Jack Nicholson of rock.' John Michael Osbourne was raised in the gritty city of Birmingham, England. Kids in school nicknamed him Ozzy, short for his surname. In the late 1960s, Osbourne teamed up with bassist Terry 'Geezer' Butler, guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward. They named themselves after the American title of the classic Italian horror movie 'I Tre Volti Della Paura,' starring Boris Karloff: Black Sabbath. The music was all about industrial guitar riffs and disorienting changes in time signatures, along with lyrics that spoke of alienation and doom. 'All day long I think of things but nothing seems to satisfy/Think I'll lose my mind if I don't find something to pacify,' Osbourne sang in one song. The Guardian in 2009 said the band 'introduced working-class anger, stoner sludge grooves and witchy horror-rock to flower power." Much later, a wholesome Osbourne would be revealed when 'The Osbournes,' which ran on MTV from 2002-2005, showed this one-time self-proclaimed madman drinking Diet Cokes as he struggled to find the History Channel on his new satellite television. He is survived by Sharon, and his children.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Black Sabbath's Ozzy Osbourne dies, weeks after farewell show
Ozzy Osbourne, one of the most recognisable and influential musicians in rock, has died at the age of 76. As frontman of Black Sabbath, the Birmingham-born musician is credited with inventing heavy metal, thanks to songs songs like Iron Man and than three weeks ago, the self-styled 'Prince of Darkness' performed a farewell concert in his hometown, supported by many of the musicians he had inspired, including Metallica and Guns 'n' a statement, his family said: "It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning. He was with his family and surrounded by love." Born John Michael Osbourne, he dropped out of school aged 15, holding several low-paid jobs and spending a short spell in prison for burglary before embarking on his musical career. After singing with several local bands, he joined Black Sabbath alongside guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, and drummer Bill Ward in the late 1960s. They developed a unique sound, inspired by the blues but slower, louder and more sinister - with frequent references to the occult. Considered pioneers of heavy metal, they released their self-titled album in 1970 and followed it up with platinum records such as Paranoid and Master of Reality throughout the rest of the from the band in 1978, he launched a successful solo career with the 1980 album Blizzard of Ozz, featuring the classic single Crazy Train. The following year's Diary of a Madman was even more popular, selling more than five million the way, Osbourne developed a reputation for his unhinged live performances, exemplified by the (possibly apocryphal) story that he had once bitten the head off a bat during a concert, having mistakenly thought it was a toy thrown on stage by a intake of drink and drugs was legendary, leading to some unusual behaviour. The rock band Motley Crue once described how Osbourne, in a competition to see whose habits were the most debauched, snorted a line of ants from a hotel in the 1990s, his wild image transformed thanks to the MTV reality show The Osbournes - which portrayed the star as the well-meaning, frequently befuddled patriarch of an unruly show also made stars of his manager-wife Sharon Osbourne, and daughter Kelly - with whom he duetted on a chart topping version of the Sabbath song Changes, reaching number one in 2003. The same year, however, he suffered a spinal injury in 2003 after a crash involving an all-terrain vehicle, or injury was exacerbated by a late-night fall in 2019, that required several rounds of extensive 2020, the star revealed he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's and largely stepped back from touring after playing the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in he was determined to make one last appearance, bowing out with last month's concert at Birmingham's Villa Park - a stone's throw from his childhood home in Aston. The musician sang while seated on a black throne - clapping, waving his arms and pulling wild-eyed looks as he performed hits including Crazy Train, Mr Crowley and War Pigs He appeared overwhelmed at some moments. "You have no idea how I feel. Thank you from the bottom of my heart," he told the audience - and almost six million more people who tuned in for the live on stage, Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo said the artists on the bill "would all be different people" without Osbourne and Black Sabbath. "That's the truth. I wouldn't be up here with this microphone in my hand without Black Sabbath. The greatest of all time."
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Ozzy Osbourne obituary: Wild life of rock's 'prince of darkness'
Ozzy Osbourne, who has died at the age of 76, helped forge the sound that became known as heavy metal - and on top of that, the frontman practically invented the image of the wild rock band Black Sabbath made an indelible mark on music by forging the sound that became known as heavy metal - hailed as a major influence by a range of artists who followed his wailing vocal style and "prince of darkness" reputation, Ozzy and the band became global stars - before he was fired due mainly to his increasing dependency on drugs and he carved out a successful solo career before reuniting with the band, as well as becoming the unlikely star of a hit TV reality show which showcased his erratic domestic Sabbath's Ozzy Osbourne dies aged 76 - follow updates He was born John Michael Osbourne in the Aston area of Birmingham, on 3 December 1948. His father Jack was a toolmaker, while his mother Lillian worked at the Lucas factory, which made car picked up the nickname Ozzy at primary school and it from gifting him his moniker, school was a dismal experience for young Osbourne. He suffered from dyslexia and what would now be termed attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).He left at 15 and wandered into a series of dead-end jobs, including some time spent working in a slaughterhouse, which allowed him to play practical jokes in pubs by putting cows' eyeballs in peoples' even turned his hand to crime but found he had little luck there either. A TV fell on him while he was burgling a house and he later spent six weeks in Birmingham's Winston Green prison after robbing a clothes shop. Reunited What saved him was music: the sound of the Beatles singing She Loves You out of a crackly transistor radio transformed his life."It was such an incredible explosion of happiness and hope," he later told writer Bryan Appleyard. "I used to dream - wouldn't it be great if Paul McCartney married my sister."He persuaded his dad to buy him a microphone and an amplifier and, together with a friend Terry 'Geezer' Butler, formed a band called Rare Breed - which lasted for just two performances. The pair became part of a Blues outfit named Polka Tulk Blues, later renamed Earth, along with guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Bill band, intent on making what they called "scary music", rehearsed in a room opposite the local cinema - where a screening of the 1963 horror film, Black Sabbath, gave birth to the band's name and first hit."I didn't invent that sort of music," Ozzy later recalled. "When I look back at that song, Black Sabbath, I think, how did I even begin to think of a melody like that?" Masterpiece The song, written by Osbourne and Butler, opened their 1970 debut album which, despite a mauling from music critics, reached number eight in the UK charts and number 23 in the success followed with a string of best-selling albums including Paranoid, Master of Reality and Volume 4, all of which sold more than a million the time the band released Sabbath Bloody Sabbath in 1973, even the critics were beginning to heap praise on them. One writer described it as a "masterpiece" and went on to say he thought the band had discovered a newfound sense of finesse and 1975 album Sabotage also received critical praise, but by this time the band were beginning to unravel and Black Sabbath were destined to lose their was already starting to succumb to the drink and drugs that would come to dominate his life. His unreliability became legendary and was beginning to irk fellow members of Black life was also under strain, with his addictions, affairs and frequent touring jeopardising his relationship with wife Thelma and their two children. The pair would later split. Unfair Osbourne had always covered up his insecurities by acting as the band's clown, but by now his antics were seriously hindering Sabbath's relationship with Iommi had never been smooth and Ozzy began to resent what he saw as the guitarist's domination of the 1978 he spent three months working on a solo project called Blizzard of Ozz, but returned to Sabbath to record the album Never Say a lacklustre tour, Osbourne was fired by the other members of Sabbath on the basis of his substance abuse, being replaced by Ronnie James Dio. Osbourne later claimed that his dismissal was unfair, claiming: "We were all as bad as each other."The problem was that Ozzy was not as good at handling the effects of the myriad substances in which the whole band resurrected his Blizzard of Ozz with the help of Sharon Arden, the daughter of Black Sabbath's manager Don Arden. The couple would later marry and go on to have three children - Aimee, Kelly and also attempted to help him control his intake of drink and drugs. There were periods when he appeared to have kicked his addictions - but he often fell off the wagon. Bark at the Moon "If it wasn't for Sharon," he later told Appleyard, "I'd be long dead."Controversy was never far away. The most notorious incident was biting the head off a live bat while on stage in Iowa in 1982. He had been catapulting raw meat into the audience on tour, which prompted fans to throw things on stage in return. He claims he thought the bat was fake before he took a did not attempt to use the same excuse about the two doves whose heads he bit off during a record label meeting the previous other exploits included being arrested for urinating on Texas war monument the Alamo while wearing one of Sharon's dresses; getting thrown out of the Dachau concentration camp for being drunk and disorderly while on a visit during a German tour; pulling a gun on Black Sabbath's drummer while on a bad acid trip; blacking out and waking up in the central reservation of a 12-lane freeway; and massacring the inhabitants of his chicken coop with a gun, sword and petrol while wearing a dressing gown and pair of all added to Ozzy's legend, but in reality most of his behaviour was not very appealing or glamorous. He was a wreck, and the drink and drugs gave him a Jekyll and Hyde 1989, he woke up in jail to be told he had been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder for strangling Sharon. He could not remember anything about it. She dropped the charges. Meanwhile, his first solo album went platinum and the follow-ups, Diary of a Madman and Bark at the Moon, were also toured extensively throughout the 1980s and 90s, as well as achieving huge commercial success with Ozzfest - a series of tours, mainly in the US, that featured bands across all genres of headlined most of the festivals and there were even appearances by his former Black Sabbath In 2002, he and his family were catapulted to a new form of fame when they unwittingly pioneered reality TV as cameras captured the foul-mouthed (but affectionate) dysfunction of their home life. Row It was a huge success, even though the US broadcasts were heavily censored to remove Osbourne's frequent profanities - something that was not deemed necessary when the show aired in the the same time, Osbourne continued to record - but was forced to take a break in 2003 when he fell off a quad bike and sustained serious was while he was recovering in hospital that he topped the UK singles charts for the first time, with a recording of the Black Sabbath song Changes, on which he sang a duet with his daughter Kelly. Black Sabbath reunited in 2005, and again in subsequent years without drummer Bill Ward, and in 2013 went back to the top of the UK album charts - 43 years after their last number one, resulting tour saw a newly-energised Ozzy: word and note perfect, fronting a band that had lost none of its old 2018, he claimed to have ditched the alcohol and the drugs and would be reining in his touring lifestyle."I have grandchildren now and I'm 70 years old and I don't want to be found dead in a hotel room somewhere," he told a journalist while promoting Ozzfest that he had other health issues to contend with. At first, he thought the shaking in his hands was a result of his lifetime of excess. But in 2007 he was diagonosed with a condition called Parkinsonian syndrome, then in 2019 with Parkinson's suffered spinal damage in a late-night fall the same year, which aggravated the injury he sustained in the quad-bike crash. Repeated surgeries had limited he was determined to bow out of the public eye with a customary bang. He, Sharon and his old Black Sabbath bandmates lined up a farewell concert at Villa Park football stadium, which took place just over two weeks array of fellow rock legends - including Metallica, Guns N' Roses and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler - lined up to perform and pay homage to him and Sabbath's himself performed seated because of his mobility problems, but managed to recapture his old magic - belting out his hits while clapping, waving his arms and pulling wild-eyed looks, just like old times."I'm proud of what I've achieved with my life," he once told an interviewer. "You couldn't have written my life story if you'd been the best writer in the world".
