Celebrating the Met Gala’s newest exhibit, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style | Canada Voices

If style is a language, the Black dandy speaks it fluently – and in many dialects. That idea fuels the 2025 Met Gala theme, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, tied to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute exhibition co-curated by Monica L. Miller, author of Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity. While the Oxford English Dictionary defines a dandy as someone who “studies above everything else to dress elegantly and fashionable,” Miller reframes the Black dandy’s style as an act of resistance – one that challenges and reshapes ideas of identity, power, race, class, gender, sexuality and nationhood.

Tracing more than 300 years of Black dandyism, the display honours figures such as writer and activist James Baldwin, with his signature silk neckerchiefs and velvet corduroy suits, as well as Pharrell Williams, one of the Met Gala’s co-chairs and Louis Vuitton men’s wear creative director, whose Vivienne Westwood Buffalo hat lit up social-media feeds. The exhibit also explores how Black dandies speak to a deeper legacy wherein the art of getting dressed up is a form of protest and performance.

Ahead of the May 5 red carpet, we asked major fashion voices to name a Black dandy who didn’t just wear a moment – but embodied it, too.

Ty Hunter, stylist to Beyoncé and Solange Knowles, and author of Makeover from Within

The moment: Solange Knowles’s Losing You video released on Oct., 1, 2012, featuring Le Sape, also known as Sapeurs (their name comes from the French slang se saper, which means to dress with class. It’s also based on the acronym of their social group, the Society of Ambianceurs and Elegant People). They emerged when stylish Congolese men began reinterpreting the fashion of their former colonizers – a flamboyant rebuttal to Mobutu Sese Seko, the long-time dictator of Zaire who banned Western clothing in a bid to enforce an “authentic” national identity.

“I styled Solange for the video but didn’t need to touch the gentlemen; they came dressed in tailored suits, patterns using the full prism, like they were honouring God. It was a different social and political dress code from when men were forced to wear a uniform. The Sapeurs said, ‘No, we’ll wear our Sunday best every day,’ choosing individuality over norms or trends or what was asked or expected of them. They refused to blend in. The Sapeur men in the video rejected uniformity, prioritized individuality and carried a self-love you could feel in every colour and fabric they wore. They inspired Solange and me to mix patterns and textures in ways we hadn’t before. After that video, I saw men and women taking bigger risks.”

Michelle Francine Ngonmo, CEO and founder of the Afro Fashion Foundation

The moment: André Leon Talley, Vogue magazine’s first Black creative director, on the steps of the Met Gala on May 2, 2011.

“Talley’s towering presence – draped in luxurious fabrics like the purple silk kaftan he wore to the 2011 Met Gala – was a radical act within a fashion world that had long excluded Black voices from power. All his Met Gala appearances weren’t just about style – they were statements. He reclaimed space, disrupted norms, and proved that sophistication, intellect and grandeur could be embodied by a Black dandy in an industry resistant to such figures. Talley’s journey symbolized access and cultural authority. His love of opulence, and ability to merge European aristocratic codes with Black cultural references with intelligence and wit, made him a singular force. Future generations see him as a reminder that Blackness in fashion is not an exception but an integral part of its foundation. It is in this spirit that the Afro Fashion Foundation was born. His dedication to lifting others made it possible to imagine an inclusive fashion future – one where all voices are celebrated, and where we, too, could shape the narrative.”

Hondo Flemming, model and actor

The moment: Sidney Poitier at the Academy Awards when he made history as the first Black man to win the best actor Oscar on April 13, 1964.

“Whenever Sidney Poitier was seen, he made a point to look sharp and be part of a long tradition of the Black dandy, using style as resistance. The Academy Awards was no different. He wore black tie like the white gentleman – but how he wore it made him shine, as if saying: I am equal to you, maybe even a little better. He wore a tuxedo, which showcased him with dignity, restraint and control – just like the characters he portrayed in the movies – which were never subservient slaves or gangster roles. He showed us all – especially Black men – how to glide into a room the way he did when he won his Oscar. When I started modelling in Milan, I went to a casting that had ‘NB’ on the call sheet – no Blacks. I still lined up because I thought that’s what Sidney Poitier would do. I booked it, then landed the cover of Vogue Italia and an editorial for Harper’s Bazaar and my career took off. I think people like Andre 3000, Anderson .Paak and Prince picked up on the way Sidney moved and styled themselves with the same energy but gave it their own twist.”

Kirk Pickersgill, fashion designer of Greta Constantine

The moment: Grace Jones, featured on the cover of her 1981 album, Nightclubbing.

“There was a dandy quality to everything she did because she was an interpreter more than a mirror. You can see that in the Armani suit she wore for the Nightclubbing album and videos like Slave to the Rhythm as well as her video album, One Man Show. In those clothes, she wasn’t trying to be somebody she wasn’t. It was all her, no stylist. Her mood board was just her inner self. She took Yves Saint Laurent’s idea of Le Smoking jacket and interpreted in a way that hadn’t been done before. She essentially told us, you have to be creative, take what’s inside of you – masculine or feminine – and let it all out. It felt like her aim was to give off strength and she used extravagance and design and high fashion to show that she was stronger than most men. You see her influence everywhere. In Janelle Monáe and Beyoncé, in collections for fashion houses and even in the next collection for Greta Constantine – her tailored style has transcended generations and algorithms and trends. She revolutionized what a dandy could be and what style is today.”

Shantrelle P. Lewis, author of Dandy Lion: The Black Dandy and Street Style

The moment: NFL linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah at Empower Field in Denver on Nov. 26, 2023.

“For me, Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah is where Black dandyism is headed. His pregame outfit in Denver is a different sartorial North Star. It is rooted in Akan style and Ashanti gold jewellery, it expresses his Ghanaian-American heritage and honours Africa as one of the world’s wealthiest empires. One shoulder draped and one bare in traditional attire – that’s reclamation. For an NFL player to reject sweats or a Western suit in favour of the garments of his forefathers shows us exactly how Black dandyism can respect the past and link it to the future. Men who are considered fashionable online usually wear Eurocentric styles, but Owusu-Koramoah centres the margins, refusing assimilation and offering a bold new template for Black success.”

Charmaine Gooden, founder of Black Fashion Canada Database

The moment: Prince attending the 57th Grammy Awards on Feb., 8, 2015.

“A far cry from the chaps, the lace and the purple reign gear, Prince wore a tangerine tunic to the Grammys in 2015 and paired it with matching flared pants, stacked heels and the elegance of a walking stick. His speech included the lines, ‘like books and Black lives, albums still matter,’ and his wardrobe that night exuded the same smart, smooth power. His was a throwback to those who had built quiet confidence and deep sense of glamour in their wardrobe for years – it mirrored loungewear Diahann Carroll and Diana Ross would have worn in a regal way. In a sea of suits, Prince stood out in this tangerine dream. The ease of attuning this kind of feminine silhouette was a decade ahead. His look was like a premonition of what you see a lot of young people wearing today.”

Mic. Carter, creative director of L’Uomo Strano

The moment: Billy Porter attending the Met Gala on May 6, 2019.

“When I saw Billy Porter emerge as an Egyptian sun god, carried like royalty, I felt something shift. It pushed the cultural conversation on Black masculinity and gender to new heights. His look – a bejewelled catsuit by the Blonds with 10-foot wings and a 24-karat gold headpiece – eclipsed the entire red carpet. It bridged Black dandyism with queer visibility because it took camp back to its roots, using it as a language of disruption. His appearance gestured toward Egypt and North Africa, placing a queer Black man at the centre of history. It was a celebration of Afrofuturism and gilded opulence – but also a demand for [the] reverence of Black, POC and queer bodies. [It was] about demanding to be seen, to take up space unapologetically. These ideas are what I am exploring in my next collection, titled ‘dead name,’ which will be presented at Fashion Art Toronto on May 29 at 8 p.m.”