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“Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity,” Monica L. Miller’s book which inspired this year’s Met gala, opens with a poignant juxtaposition. Miller conjures two images—an unnamed black boy dressed in a bright red jacket and the “flamboyantly attired” André 3000; two disparate figures that both represent the spectrum of the Black dandy. On one extreme is the image of the unnamed Black boy, a totem of a painful part of Black history—circa 1840—when dandified servants in wealthy households were dressed in elaborate costumes as a show of their enslavers’ wealth. André 3000, a stylistic innovator who’s known for his leadership of the African Gentlemen’s movement, sits on the other end of this spectrum. This juxtaposition is both profound and telling, highlighting the gulf between the Black reality of the 19th century and the current reality of Black people.
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“How has the representation of black people,” Miller asks later in the book, “been transformed from images of dandified “luxury” slavery to that of self-fashioning black dandies whose likenesses are now ubiquitous on the stage and on the streets?” This question forms the premise of the book and functions as its animating force. More importantly, it forces us to recognize the outsized role fashion has played in shifting perceptions about Black people. Frederick Douglass, one of the leading figures in the movement for African-American civil rights and the most photographed Black man of the 19th century (as have other Black men throughout history) helped dispel racist imagery of Black people through elegantly tailored outfits, many of which survive through the photos of him that still exist.
One particular portrait of Douglass, which is on display at the “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” exhibition, finds him placid, piercing the camera with a sharp gaze, dressed in a double breasted jacket, with a stiff upright-collared shirt. Dressed so elegantly and with such a striking pose, white America was forced to confront its retrograde views about Black people. This is not to suggest that fashion pulverized racism and emancipated Black people. But it undoubtedly played a huge role in shifting preconceived notions and challenging stereotypes. The Swenkas, a unique subculture of working-class Zulu men in South Africa, have also historically deployed dandyism to rail against the oppression of apartheid and the prominent racist dynamics that continue to plague South Africa to this day.
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Picture this: a coterie of flamboyantly dressed men sporting brightly colored suits and patterned shirts. These exuberantly dressed gentlemen strut down a sun-dappled street in Johannesburg as they affectionately compete for the title of best-dressed. After they all strut down the aisle, the designated judge crowns a winner based on style, posture, grooming, etiquette and overall “swag.” This is how a typical Swenkas competition, typically held on weekends, goes.
For the Swenkas, fashion transcends clothes and is a vehicle for resistance and self-expression. Denied status in mainstream society, they turned to their own spaces—church halls, streets and community centers—to establish alternative sources of self worth and joy. This subversion of racist structures through the power of fashion is a throughline between the Swenkas and the theme of this year’s Met Gala, centered on the Black dandy. Taken together, they impress upon us a poignant insight, which is that while fashion may not save the world, it has the capacity to inspire lasting change in society.
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