Fine & dandy: Black style is bigger than the Met

Boston Globe

06-05-2025

The
Zendaya at The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala on Monday in New York.
Evan Agostini/Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
Dandyism is fashion as expression, as declaration, as fit, as form, and a call to attention. Dandyism is indulging your muchness as never too much at all with a refinery that commands one see you.
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Capes, colors, fabrics you can feel and feel again, and fit specific to your body, your way. More importantly – your choice. Autonomy. Expression. Movement. All yours.
Historically, we were denied this basic human right. Our Blackness is ours, something we always carry with us. It's not an outfit we take on and off.
André Leon Talley, the late, sartorial king and first Black creative director of Vogue, understood this as a six-foot-seven Black man and
often the only Black person on the front row of esteemed fashion shows. How I wish he could have been alive to see the gala in Black, to see the four Black men co-chairing it, and the
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'As far as Blackness is a concern, I want to address this: My Blackness is paramount to me as a man. My Blackness is always uppermost in my life,' he
'... I'm aware I'm a Black individual who came from enslaved people from Africa, who was a descendant of great, great generations of talent and geniuses, and people of color who are great masters in fields of science, art, literature, politics.'
Andre Leon Talley arrived at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute gala benefit, celebrating the "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty" exhibition in 2011 in New York.
Evan Agostini/Associated Press
We carry this in the closet of our consciousness. The highs and the lows of our history and our now. While celebrities walked the red carpets celebrating Black style, our schools, museums, and nonprofits are being forced to turn away from diversity, equity, and inclusion or risk federal funding, lawsuits, and more.
Erasure is targeting our identities, our historic truths, how we
honor and remember one another. To celebrate cultural differences and teach history that addresses racism and racial realities in this country is being rewritten as 'Anti-American ideology.'
This is the kind of propaganda that was historically used to detach Black people and nonwhite folks from their humanity, from their citizenship, from the right to respect.
In the Jim Crow era, there was an intentional effort to deny Black dignity by creating tropes of Sambos and Sapphires, of Mammies and Mandigos, of Savages and Jezebels. All given various uniforms and characteristics in an attempt to abase us.
We could dismiss this as a practice of the past but we see how it follows us into the now when we remember 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who was described by George Zimmerman as a suspicious guy in a dark hoodie. Martin was simply walking while Black and wearing a hoodie.
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A Black boy dressed a certain way. A Black boy enjoying the luxury of casual comfortability. A Black boy carrying candy and tea when he was stalked through his neighborhood and defended himself against the perpetrator, only to be murdered.
The clothes of Black folk have always been connected to arming and disarming. Slave codes dictated what enslaved people could wear, referred to as '
coarse, cheap, and dull fabrics. Our people had to make their own with what was given. And make our own is what we did.
Colman Domingo at The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala on Monday in New York.
Evan Agostini/Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
Our ancestors countered that by creating an armor of what was considered distinguished and dignified, and making it our own. Frederick Douglass became the most photographed man of the 19th century on purpose: overcoats and tailored three-piece suits. Taking what was denied, shedding what was forced, and portraying power. He created a new Black image. He evoked Black dignity.
In time, we dared to be playful with personalized fashion. Zoot suits. Feathers. Flourish. The bold colors, textures, accessories, and shapes of the Harlem Renaissance are undeniable, often referenced and replicated on runways today.
Throughout the
Civil Rights Movement, we saw how fashion sent a message. The Sunday's Best finest church clothes of protesters led by Martin Luther King Jr. defied the unruly and inhumane narratives institutional players tried to assign us. With the Black Panther Party, leather signified strength and resistance.
With hip-hop culture came the freedom to demand respect regardless of class or clothing. A mix of fine tailoring and streetwear, sneakers and suits, furs and denim, polos and Timberland boots meant there were no restrictions. The one rule is to be cool with who you are, to understand that to simply be yourself in whatever you wear should command basic human decency over stereotypes.
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Fashion changes and changes again. But throughout time, what we wear as a language remains. To define, for yourself, what is luxury and believe it so boldly that the masses follow your trend. In the tradition of dandyism, there is a throughline of subverting the politics of respectability and dressing freely.
Dandyism is confidence and defiance of everything that told you to be small and quiet and controlled. It's not as simple as bespoke tailoring and couture we can't afford. It is to be outspoken in your personhood and loud in your liberation.
Rihanna (left) and A$AP Rocky attended The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala celebrating the opening of the "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style" exhibition on Monday in New York.
Evan Agostini/Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
This piece is a part of
, a weekly offering from Jeneé Osterheldt celebrating Black joy, resistance, and sharing space with other folks, too.
Jeneé Osterheldt can be reached at