Superfine: Tailoring Black Style

The Costume Institute's spring 2025 exhibition examined the importance of clothing and style to the formation of Black identities across the Atlantic diaspora, tracing roughly three hundred years of dress through the concept of dandyism. Inspired by Monica L. Miller's book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity (2009), it presented garments, accessories, paintings, photographs, and decorative arts that show how Black men and women have used fashion to shape and assert identity. The exhibition was the basis for the theme of the 2025 Met Gala.