Black Arts & Tradition Characteristic:
The making of Vogue’s Met challenge is documented in a behind-the-scenes video. The quilt shoots are highlighted and scenes from Tyler Mitchell photographing his 28-page dandy-style suiting portfolio are captured, together with commentary from the numerous collaborating fashions, artists, and cultural figures. | Video by Vogue
BLACK DANDYISM is an concept and potent fashion with a profound historical past and affect on up to date trend. A dandy is one who clothes elegantly and impeccably with specific consideration paid to tailoring and particular person fashion. Suppose Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Duke Ellington, Dapper Dan, André Leon Talley, Prince, Iké Udé, Andre 3000, Jeremy O. Harris, and Colman Domingo. The idea has darkish roots in enslavement and servitude that over generations has remodeled into a press release of energy, pleasure, and creativity.
Final fall, the Costume Institute on the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork in New York introduced its spring 2025 exhibition would give attention to the “historic and cultural emergence of the Black Dandy, tracing the determine from 18th-century depictions to modern-day representations.”
Titled “Superfine: Tailoring Black Type,” the exhibition is impressed by “Slaves to Trend: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identification,” a scholarly quantity printed by Monica L. Miller in 2009. Miller is professor and chair of Africana research at Barnard School at Columbia College. She is visitor curator of the exhibition, which opens Could 10.
Black dandyism can be the theme for this 12 months’s Met Gala (Could 5), which advantages the Costume Institute. The co-chairs of the Met Gala are Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, A$AP Rocky, Pharrell Williams, and Anna Wintour, with LeBron James serving as an honorary co-chair. (The Met Gala menu is by Chef Kwame Onwuachi and artist Cy Gavin is designing the décor idea with Derek McLane and Raúl Àvila.)
As well as, the Could challenge of Vogue journal celebrates the exhibition’s sartorial theme. Wintour’s 4 co-chairs every grace a canopy of the particular challenge. The making of Vogue’s Met challenge is documented in a behind-the-scenes video with Miller framing the historical past and definition of Black dandyism.
“The sort of dictionary definition of dandyism is someone who research above all else, to decorate elegantly and fashionably. When the dandy is Black, we get to see the dandy as a determine that actually encapsulates a sort of matrix of id, race, gender, class, sexuality and generally nation. I’m actually focused on fascinated about clothes, costume, and trend as a instrument, as a critique, and in addition as a artistic mode of fascinated about liberation,” Miller stated.
“When the dandy is Black, we get to see the dandy as a determine that actually encapsulates a sort of matrix of id, race, gender, class, sexuality and generally nation. I’m actually focused on fascinated about clothes, costume, and trend as a instrument, as a critique, and in addition as a artistic mode of fascinated about liberation.” — Visitor Curator Monica Miller
Pharrell Williams, Portrait by Henry Taylor (Vogue, Could 2025). | Williams stated it was an “honor” to be featured on the duvet of Vogue. He stated: “Henry’s a improbable artist, loopy life story. And he’s simply writing new chapters as we converse. He’s one of the vital coveted artists within the house, and is simply alive, nicely, kicking it and crushing it. Van Gogh by no means bought to see the world revere him. Henry’s alive to expertise individuals appreciating his work.”
VOGUE’S BLACK DANDY ISSUE is trend ahead and artist centered with appearances and contributions by an all-star lineup from the worlds of favor and leisure. When it comes to the covers, Henry Taylor painted a portrait of Williams, Nigerian American artist and creator Iké Udé shot Domingo, Senegalese photographer Malick Bodian captured Hamilton, and Tyler Mitchell photographed Rocky.
Vogue profiled Taylor who lives and works in Los Angeles. He makes richly coloured, loosely rendered narrative photographs, candid scenes and engaging portraits of the individuals he encounters in his expansive universe—pals, household, neighbors, fellow artists, anybody who strikes his curiosity. The work are embedded with politics, historical past, violence, humor, and private and common emotion.
Working from reminiscence, Taylor made a couple of work of Williams earlier than he settled on the portrait that seems on the duvet. The musician, producer, and males’s artistic director at Louis Vuitton (the first funder of the exhibition) is pictured in opposition to a inexperienced background. Williams seems to be squarely on the viewer from behind tinted glasses with blinged-out frames, carrying a blue baseball cap with “Human Made” emblazoned on the entrance. (Williams is an advisor to the Human Made model, based by his buddy, Japanese designer Nigo.)
Taylor advised Vogue he wished “hold it easy and soulful.” He stated: “Typically easy is finest, and that’s what I ended up doing.”
A$AP Rocky, Photographed by Tyler Mitchell (Vogue, Could 2025). | “I simply made a dream come true. I shot all my (Louis Vuitton) trunks on the nook, a random nook in Harlem proper now,” Rocky stated. “I got here up with the concept to characteristic my grandma, got here up with the concept to shoot in Langton Hughes’s home, got here up with the concept to do Dalmatians ’trigger it’s 101 years of the Harlem Renaissance.”
Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Mitchell, who hails from the suburbs of Atlanta, grew to become the primary Black photographer to shoot a Vogue cowl when he was tapped to work with Beyonce for the September 2018 challenge. He was solely 23 on the time. Mitchell’s work is gorgeous and liberating. His fastidiously staged photographs convey sense of freedom and self-determination, pleasure, fashion, and leisure. For the dandy challenge, Mitchell photographed Rocky’s cowl in Harlem, the place the rapper was born and raised.
“I got here up with the concept to characteristic my grandma, got here up with the concept to shoot in Langton Hughes’s home, got here up with the concept to do Dalmatians ’trigger it’s 101 years of the Harlem Renaissance,” Rocky stated within the video. “So , it was an actual collective effort and Tyler and Regulation (Roach) was very receptive to my concepts and we constructed on high of it and made a masterpiece as we speak.”
Mitchell additionally produced an expansive portfolio contained in the journal impressed by dandy-style suiting. The style shoot showcases good tailoring, high quality materials, and crowd pleasing shade and sample.
“The precise images side of it was simply to channel this superb portfolio of very gifted individuals in as we speak’s panorama. And the way in which we may unify all that was to make a really simplistic set truly solely containing a couple of components, sure colours in a shade palette that was primarily pastel. After which components or hints of wooden,” Mitchell stated within the video. “Different Black photographers, James Van Der Zee, Gordon Parks, Roy DeCarava, these had been kind of the references.”
“The precise images side of it was simply to channel this superb portfolio of very gifted individuals in as we speak’s panorama.… Different Black photographers, James Van Der Zee, Gordon Parks, Roy DeCarava, these had been kind of the references.” — Tyler Mitchell
Lewis Hamilton, Portrait by Malick Bodian (Vogue, Could 2025). | “I take advantage of canes on this shoot, and I feel there’s a way of pleasure when the boys on the street in like Congo, in Sierra Leone, in Gambia, in Nigeria. They’ll come out in nice tailoring and have their pictures taken,” Bodian stated. “And I feel there’s a way of pleasure whenever you maintain one thing and you’re going someplace. There’s a way of bringing every part you must the image.”
“Superfine & Dandy” is a 28-page presentation solid with trend fashions; artists Rashid Johnson, Jordan Casteel, Ferrari Sheppard, and Honor Titus; iconic figures similar to Spike Lee, Dapper Dan, and classic collector Lana Turner; and a brand new technology, together with Jon Batiste, Myha’la, Noah Wyles, Ayo Edebiri, Jeremy Pope, Tayana Taylor, Yara Shahidi, A’ja Wilson, and LaKeith Stanfield. Designers Grace Wales Bonner and Jerry Lorenzo (Worry of God), and stylist Regulation Roach (who was the style editor for the unfold) seem, too.
All are dressed to the nines carrying a wide range of designers, together with Black-owned manufacturers and couturiers similar to Duro Olowu, Christopher John Rodgers, Sergio Hudson, Torishéju, Theophilio, Worry of God, and Wales Bonner.
“I actually like tailoring as a result of there’s an actual intention that goes into crafting a silhouette in in relation to the physique. So I really feel prefer it’s a really shut relationship which you could have with somebody as a designer. There’s a sort of accountability inside that as nicely,” Wales Bonner stated within the video.
“Black fashion is admittedly associated to fascinated about how trend and energy join. The best way that individuals are styled, are customary or customary themselves, in response to the diploma of company that they really feel. Silhouettes change, use of sample, shade, all of these issues change in relationship to time, and relationship to historical past. So trend, energy, aesthetics, politics, these are all wrapped up in a method that we will see the world,” Miller stated
She added: “I do suppose that the principle message that we’re attempting to get throughout is admittedly trend as empowerment. Trend as a technique to say one thing about your self, proper? Or your neighborhood that could be new or that could be exterior of stereotype of boundaries.”
Jeremy O. Harris penned an essay that accompanies the intensive trend unfold. The Tony-nominated playwright is a self-described dandy. Harris recalled carrying a swimsuit and bow tie to have his image taken at JCPenney when he was solely three years previous—a household portrait along with his mom who was single and 21. “You’re trying sharp little man!” the photographer stated. “Wanting ‘sharp’ was a technique to talk to those who I used to be taken care of,” Harris wrote. Years later, when the stakes and stereotypes confronted by a younger Black boy had been far higher, his enduring fashion despatched the identical message.
“The story my garments needed to inform as I walked the halls of my non-public college in Virginia (a college based in 1968 as Black youngsters had been starting to combine rich public college districts) was that residence was protected, my household and I had been good—as a result of I used to be dressed not simply nicely however ornately. It takes time and security to adorn oneself, and my mom supplied me with each,” Harris wrote.
“When the Met introduced the theme, like I already had so many references. I’ve already constructed out this unbelievable database of photographs and recollections all the way in which from slavery to modern-day. I’ve been learning, and ready for this second virtually all my life.” — Regulation Roach
Colman Domingo, Portrait by Iké Udé (Vogue, Could 2025). | “The portrait session went nicely. After I started, I used to be attempting to direct him. In some unspecified time in the future, he paused. He stated, “You understand, I’m not a trend mannequin. I’m an actor. Let me really feel this story, and I offer you no matter you need,” Udé stated. Domingo added: “It’s me, and the digital camera, and Ike, and we’re having this second collectively. All of the individuals round me which have come earlier than me are with me within the room. I prefer to make it possible for it’s by no means nearly me, however it’s about the place I come from, it’s about my ancestors, it’s about my household. So I wish to carry them into the room.”
THE VIDEO DOCUMENTS the on-set experiences of the fashions, actors, athletes, and cultural figures photographed carrying good-looking, tailor-made ensembles, as nicely the views and cultural capital of a brand new technology of creatives who’ve made house for themselves in trend, artwork, and images.
Domingo stated: “The thought of like honoring the Black dandy, issues. To have a look at the historical past and the influence that we’ve had on tradition, on design, artwork, music, and I’m standing with these unbelievable brothers who I like so dearly. It’s only a lovely, lovely second and I’m very proud to be part of it.”
Shahidi stated: “As a lot as as we speak is so lovely, it’s sadly nonetheless an anomaly to stroll into an area and to see so many people. I feel many people listed here are used to being one of many solely brown faces on a set, and being the illustration and being the variety. I imply, even that is solely a sliver of simply how lovely, and the depth and breadth of what it’s to be Black and have a good time our Blackness.”
Pope added: “I feel this challenge is so vital on so many ranges as a result of we’re taking the chance and second to spotlight Blackness, to embrace it, not in a manner that looks like a trope or a efficiency. I hope that individuals obtain it with love and a possibility to uplift a neighborhood. That could be a lovely factor ’trigger I’m nonetheless standing and I’m nonetheless right here. I’m nonetheless Black and I nonetheless really feel very lovely.”
Roach was notably moved by the mission. “When the Met introduced the theme, like I already had so many references, proper? I feel I’m sort of a purveyor of my tradition and my historical past. I’ve already constructed out this unbelievable database of photographs and recollections all the way in which from slavery to modern-day. I’ve been learning, and ready for this second, , virtually all my life,” Roach stated.
“This second, particularly what’s occurring on the planet and in our nation, this second appears so vital. That is greater than us as people. That is greater than us as actors or actresses or fashions. It’s the mixture of all of us coming collectively to create one thing lovely for current and for future.” CT
“Superfine: Tailoring Black Type” is on view on the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork in New York, N.Y., from Could 10-Oct. 26, 2025. The exhibition is visitor curated by Monica L. Miller, artist Torkwase Dyson developed the conceptual design, artist Tanda Francis designed two bespoke sculpted model heads, and artist and creator Iké Udé served as a particular marketing consultant
Vogue’s Met Subject features a transient profile of artist Henry Taylor, articles about every cowl topic (Pharrell Williams, Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, and A$AP Rocky) and the making of their portraits, and extra editorial protection impressed by the Met Gala and Black dandy exhibition theme
FIND MORE The New York Occasions lately profiled Iké Udé, the Nigerian American artist and creator who photographed Lewis Hamilton’s Vogue cowl, and whose portrait covers Monica L. Miller’s e-book “Slaves to Trend: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identification”
FIND MORE Artist Henry Taylor and his cowl topic Pharrell Williams have collaborated beforehand. For the Louis Vuitton Males’s Spring-Summer season 2024 assortment, Williams integrated tiny photographs of the artist’s portraits on fits. Taylor additionally seems within the opening of the runway video
BOOKSHELF
The exhibition catalog “Superfine: Tailoring Black Type” is authored by Monica L. Miller with Andrew Bolton, William DeGregorio, and Amanda Garfinkel with images by Tyler Mitchell. Pacific (Elizabeth Karp-Evans and Adam Turnbull) designed the catalog. “Slaves to Trend: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identification” by Monica L. Miller impressed the exhibition on the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork. “I Can Make You Really feel Good: Tyler Mitchell” is the photographer’s first monograph. “Henry Taylor: B Aspect” documented the artist’s latest touring retrospective and “Henry Taylor” is the artist’s first main monograph. Each “Type File: The World’s Most Elegantly Dressed” and “Nollywood Portraits: A Radical Magnificence” are by Iké Udé. Additionally take into account, “Dandy Lion: The Black Dandy and Avenue Type” by Shantrell P. Lewis and “Black Ivy: A Revolt in Type.”
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