Fine & Dandy: A Close Look at the Met's Costume Institute's 2025 Exhibition Theme

Catalog description

Drawing on the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute’s spring 2025 exhibition Superfine: Tailoring Black Style and Monica L. Miller’s seminal text Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, this 1-credit course examines the cultural and historical phenomenon of Black dandyism. Over three successive weekly sessions, we will explore the intersections of fashion, race, power, and resistance, asking: How has style has shaped and expressed Black identities from the 18th century to the present? How has fashion been deployed as resistance? How has it constructed and deconstructed racial and gender identities, particularly among Black male-identified individuals? Students will analyze the garments, accessories, visual art, and media representations that are at the core of Superfine. These close readings will help us trace Black dandyism’s emergence in Enlightenment Europe amidst the Atlantic slave trade and consumerism, and evolution into a dynamic form of self-expression within global Black communities. By the end of the course, students will develop a nuanced understanding of fashion’s transformative power as a cultural and political force in the African Diaspora. As part of this project, we will also consider the curatorial processes and choices behind Superfine, and assignments will ask students to work closely with material to curate their own mini exhibitions around the theme and legacy of the Black dandy.