NEW YORK (AP) — Fashion icons like Dapper Dan, Janelle Monáe and the late André Leon Talley are known for their distinctive approaches to sartorial style — bold splashes of color, luxurious fabrics, playful construction, capes — but fashion savants and historians agree that a common thread weaves their tailored looks together: dandyism.
The history-laden style movement will be front and center as part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute spring exhibit, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” kicking off with the biggest night in fashion, Monday’s Met Gala.
Inspired by Monica Miller’s book “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity,” the exhibit focuses on Black style and specifically menswear from the 18th century to present day, with dandyism as a unifying theme.
What is dandyism?
Once used to describe the aristocratic style and leisurely pursuits of figures like Regency England’s Beau Brummell, dandyism has been recontextualized over the years to embody liberation and resistance through exuberant self-expression.
This evolution of the term began with the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Miller, guest curator of the Met exhibit, writes how, in the 18th century, young, dandified Black servants in England were forced to wear gold, brass or silver collars with padlocks and fine livery — uniforms for slaves and servants — that signaled their owners’ wealth.
“They wanted the enslaved person to stand out almost as if they were a luxury item,” said Jonathan Square, Parsons School of Design assistant professor and one of the advisers on the Met exhibit.
Slaves arrived in America with few or no belongings. What they had left, they treasured, be it beads or small precious objects, Miller writes.
“This is as true for those who were deliberately dressed in silks and turbans, whose challenge was to inhabit the clothing in their own way, as for those who were more humbly attired, who used clothing as a process of remembrance and mode of distinction (and symbolic and sometimes actual escape from bondage) in their new environment,” Miller explains in her book.
Stripped of their identities, enslaved people often added their own flair to their tailored Sunday best looks for church or on holidays.
Post-Emancipation, Black Americans had the chance to reclaim their autonomy and carve out new lives for themselves, paving the way for the Harlem Renaissance.
Dandyism enters a new era with the Harlem Renaissance
Black Americans fled the South for cities like Chicago, Los Angeles and New York in a period dubbed the Great Migration. From the 1920s to the 1930s, New York’s Harlem neighborhood became an influential and fertile landscape for Black cultural expression. From Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston to Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong, its prominent minds reshaped the fabric of American culture and challenged prejudiced beliefs.
The Harlem Renaissance gave fashion a soul, said Brandice Daniel, founder of Harlem’s Fashion Row, an agency that connects designers of color with retailers and brand opportunities.
“It was this birthplace of this visual identity that spoke to what we now call Black excellence,” she said.
The renaissance meant living and dressing boldly for Black Americans, pushing past societal confines and making themselves visible. Adding their own twist on mainstream looks, women donned furs and beaded dresses while men experimented with tailored fabrics, pristine fedora hats, two-toned oxfords and billowing silhouettes.
“Many of us have a photo of our grandfather decked out with the suiting, but it’s also the stance and the kind of posture and the assertion of presence,” said Tara Donaldson, co-author of “Black In Fashion: 100 Years Of Style, Influence, and Culture.”
W.E.B. Du Bois, a pivotal figure of the era who often appeared in a three-piece suit, a frock coat and top hat, understood the power of self-fashioning, said Valerie Steele, director of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. At the 1900 Paris Exposition, Du Bois mounted a photographic exhibit centered on showcasing Black Americans’ economic, social and cultural contributions to combat stereotypes.
“That kind of self-fashioning is very much a way of reclaiming a sense of self-respect that had been denied by a society that aggressively was saying, ‘No, no you can’t have that,’” Steele said.
A key, enduring look: the zoot suit
One style that arose out of the Harlem Renaissance, directly linked to dandyism, was the zoot suit. The suit, defined by high-waisted draped pants and oversized jackets with exaggerated shoulders and large lapels, was subversive simply by taking up space. Because of fabric rations during World War II, owning a zoot suit, with its excessive use of fabric, was an act of protest, Square said.
“It’s meant to be a provocation,” Square said. “But also, it’s a form of protection, covering a part of your body, sort of saying, ‘You don’t have access to this.’”
The style was quickly adopted by Mexican American and Filipino American men in Los Angeles. In 1943, servicemen and police officers attacked Black, Mexican and Filipino men in what was labeled the Zoot Suit Riots. The zoot suit lives on today in the gender-fluid designs of Willy Chavarria.
Dandyism
transcends gender
Dandyism was not limited to men. Following World War I, women began breaking down fashion’s gender norms. With her tuxedo and top hat, blues singer and entertainer Gladys Bentley epitomized how women in the Harlem Renaissance blurred gender lines and adopted more masculine styles of dress.
Singer and actor Monáe, who sits on this year’s Met Gala’s host committee, is not shy about standing out on a red carpet in her tailored, playful looks. Monáe’s distinct style and flourishes with oversized hats, whimsically tailored suits and ornate bow ties personify the dandy style.
As Monáe and the rest of the starry guest list arrive in their glamorous “Tailored for You” looks, Monday will be a night to remember all the dandies who styled out before.
“Black people, Black men are finally getting their flowers for being true style icons,” said designer Ev Bravado, co-founder of Who Decides War. “It is amazing to see the ancestral work being put on display.”
