Malique Morris, a DTC correspondent, dives into the transformative significance of the 2025 Met Gala's theme, 'Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.' He highlights the gala’s focus on Black fashion, creativity, and representation, showcasing bold looks and cultural impact. The discussion also touches on the importance of Black dandyism, activism linked to fashion, and the evolving role of Black designers in the industry. Morris advocates for enhanced support for diverse talent, emphasizing the need for true representation in high-fashion spaces.
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Historic Black Style Exhibition
The 2025 Met Gala exhibit "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style" is the first to exclusively center Black fashion, focusing on menswear after two decades. - It links Black tailoring with dignity and activism, acknowledging Black influence in fashion amid anti-DEI climate.
insights INSIGHT
Black Dandyism's Deeper Meaning
Black dandyism redefines fashion as an existential statement for Black communities, asserting value and dignity through precise, elegant tailoring. - Frederick Douglass's tailcoat exemplifies how sartorial elegance served as armor against oppression historically and today.
insights INSIGHT
Black Designers in Luxury Fashion
The exhibit explicitly highlights historically significant garments and work by Black designers at luxury houses to challenge traditional fashion narratives. - Pieces by Virgil Abloh and Olivier Rousteing symbolize breakthroughs within luxury fashion for Black creatives.
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Slaves to Fashion, Black Dandyism, and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity
Monica Miller
The Costume Institute's 2025 exhibition, "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style," celebrated its opening at the annual Met Gala, marking the first menswear-focused exhibit in two decades and the first ever centred exclusively on Black fashion. Inspired by Monica L. Miller's seminal work on Black dandyism, the exhibition took a scholarly approach to exploring the historical and cultural significance of Black tailoring. The gala’s official dress code, "Tailored for You," provided a broader and more personal prompt, encouraging guests to interpret tailoring through their own unique perspectives.
DTC correspondent Malique Morris and joins senior correspondent Sheena Butler-Young and executive editor Brian Baskin to reflect on the night’s boldest looks, the broader discussion on representation and inclusion at the event, and how the prestigious gala could evolve to better support diverse talent.
Key Insights:
The Costume Institute's 2025 exhibition emphasised fashion as a powerful tool used by Black communities to assert dignity and counteract societal prejudice. Organised into 12 sections, each exploring a different aspect of Black dandyism, it thoughtfully included historically significant garments, like abolitionist Frederick Douglass's tailcoat, underscoring the profound role that meticulously tailored attire has played in activism and representation. "It showed how our activism, while not reduced to an aesthetic, is indeed linked to how we wear beautifully cut clothing,” explains Morris.
Natural hair was heavily featured in this year’s gala looks. "Black people's natural hair has always been up for debate, especially when it's of tightly coiled texture. Doechii said so much by wearing that beautiful crown on fashion's biggest night,” says Morris. “Redefining, but also defining what is so natural to us is absolutely stunning and worthy of praise at the utmost event like the Met Gala.”
The presence of influencers at culturally prestigious events like the Met Gala remains contentious. Morris questioned the necessity of influencer inclusion, advocating instead for prominence to be given to figures whose cultural impact is undeniable and long-lasting. "The people who were actually shifting culture in a really meaningful way, who have stood the test of time and are icons, it makes a lot of sense for them to take up so much oxygen,” he says. “With this Met specifically, when we're talking about the designers and them having more of a buy-in and them having more of a presence, we're moving in the right direction.”
Meaningful progression for the Met Gala, and similar institutions, involves sustained and systemic representation rather than temporary or symbolic inclusion. Morris advocates for lasting change, suggesting a shift towards consistent visibility for independent designers from diverse backgrounds. "I want indie brands having an outsized presence at the Met Gala to be endemic," says Morris. “I think that will be the progress.”
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