Slaves to Fashion by
Slaves to Fashion is a pioneering cultural history of the black dandy, from his emergence in Enlightenment England to his contemporary incarnations in the cosmopolitan art worlds of London and New York. It is populated by sartorial impresarios such as Julius Soubise, a freed slave who sometimes wore diamond-buckled, red-heeled shoes as he circulated through the social scene of eighteenth-century London, and Yinka Shonibare, a prominent Afro-British artist who not only styles himself as a fop but also creates ironic commentaries on black dandyism in his work. Interpreting performances and representations of black dandyism in particular cultural settings and literary and visual texts, Monica L. Miller emphasizes the importance of sartorial style to black identity formation in the Atlantic diaspora. Dandyism was initially imposed on black men in eighteenth-century England, as the Atlantic slave trade and an emerging culture of conspicuous consumption generated a vogue in dandified black servants. "Luxury slaves" tweaked and reworked their uniforms, and were soon known for their sartorial novelty and sometimes flamboyant personalities. Tracing the history of the black dandy forward to contemporary celebrity incarnations such as Andre 3000, Miller explains how black people became arbiters of style and how they have historically used the dandy's signature tools--clothing, gesture, and wit--to break down limiting identity markers and propose new ways of fashioning political and social possibility in the black Atlantic world. With an aplomb worthy of her iconographic subject, she considers the black dandy in relation to nineteenth-century American literature and drama, W. E. B. Du Bois's reflections on black masculinity and cultural nationalism, the modernist aesthetics of the Harlem Renaissance, and representations of black cosmopolitanism in contemporary visual art.
Superfine by
This exploration of Black dandy fashion and its representation in art and literature highlights the vibrant, complicated legacy of a recognizable yet constantly shifting style, from its origins in Enlightenment Europe to the contemporary art and fashion worlds Superfine: Tailoring Black Style explores the history of a style characterized by bold, refined fashions, provocative excess, and a defining relationship with Black masculinity across three centuries. This publication interrogates the origins of the style as an imposed uniform for Black servants in wealthy eighteenth-century European households, through its use as a statement of artistic and political agency during the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights Movement, to the present day, when dandyism is also an essential component of hip-hop aesthetics and popular street wear. Sections highlight qualities of dandy style that resonate across time, including cosmopolitanism, caricature, disguise, ease, ownership, and presence. The book features new photography of garments, accessories, and artworks from about 1700 to the present, as well as current voices in fashion, literature, and art writing on these objects. Including works by celebrated contemporary fashion designers, as well as early designs by anonymous makers, this engaging publication demonstrates how Black style arbiters used the dandy's signature tools--clothing, gesture, and wit--to break down boundaries and fashion new cultural and social realities. Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press Exhibition Schedule: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (May 10-October 26, 2025)
Dandy Lion: the Black Dandy and Street Style by
Suits that pop with loud colors and dazzling patterns, complete with a nearly ubiquitous bowtie, define the style of the new "dandy." Described as "high-styled rebels" by author Shantrelle P. Lewis, Black men with a penchant for color and refined fashion, both new and vintage, have gained popular attention in recent years, influencing mainstream fashion. But Black dandyism itself is not new; originating from the intersection of Africa's long history of sartorial aesthetics and European fashion, then later from the personal styling of enslaved people in Victorian England, it has continued for generations in black cultures around the world. Now, set against the backdrop of hip-hop culture, this iteration of dandies is redefining what it means to be Black, masculine, and fashionable. Dandy Lion presents and celebrates individual dandy personalities, designers and tailors, movements and events that define contemporary dandyism. Throughout the book, self-expression is communicated through personal style, clothing, shoes, hats, and swagger. Lewis's carefully curated selection of contemporary photographs surveys the movement across the globe in spectacular form, with all the vibrant patterns, electrifying colors, and fanciful poses of this brilliant style subculture.
Black Ivy: a Revolt in Style by
Black Ivy: A Revolt in Style charts a period in American history when black men across the country adopted the clothing of a privileged elite and made it their own. From the most avant-garde jazz musicians, visual artists and poets to the most unassuming architects, philosophers and writers, Black Ivy looks at how a generation of men took the classic Ivy Look and made it cool, edgy and unpredictable in ways that continue to influence today's modern menswear. Here you'll see some famous, infamous and not so famous figures in black culture, and how they re-invented Ivy and Prep fashion, the dominant looks of the time.
Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem by
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER . "DapperDan is a legend, an icon, a beacon of inspiration to many in the Black community. His story isn't just about fashion. It's about tenacity, curiosity, artistry, hustle, love, and a singular determination to live our dreams out loud."-Ava DuVernay, director ofSelma,13th, andA Wrinkle in Time NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY VANITY FAIR. DAPPER DANNAMED ONE OFTIME'S 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN THE WORLD With his now-legendary store on 125th Street in Harlem, Dapper Dan pioneered high-end streetwear in the 1980s, remixing classic luxury-brand logos into his own innovative, glamorous designs. But before he reinvented haute couture, he was a hungry boy with holes in his shoes, a teen who daringly gambled drug dealers out of their money, and a young man in a prison cell who found nourishment in books. In this remarkable memoir, he tells his full story for the first time. Decade after decade, Dapper Dan discovered creative ways to flourish in a country designed to privilege certain Americans over others. He witnessed, profited from, and despised the rise of two drug epidemics. He invented stunningly bold credit card frauds that took him around the world. He paid neighborhood kids to jog with him in an effort to keep them out of the drug game. And when he turned his attention to fashion, he did so with the energy and curiosity with which he approaches all things- learning how to treat fur himself when no one would sell finished fur coats to a Black man; finding the best dressed hustler in the neighborhood and converting him into a customer; staying open twenty-four hours a day for nine years straight to meet demand; and, finally, emerging as a world-famous designer whose looks went on to define an era, dressing cultural icons including Eric B. and Rakim, Salt-N-Pepa, Big Daddy Kane, Mike Tyson, Alpo Martinez, LL Cool J, Jam Master Jay, Diddy, Naomi Campbell, and Jay-Z. By turns playful, poignant, thrilling, and inspiring, Dapper Dan- Made in Harlem is a high-stakes coming-of-age story spanning more than seventy years and set against the backdrop of an America where, as in the life of its narrator, the only constant is change. Praise for Dapper Dan- Made in Harlem "Dapper Dan is a true one of a kind, self-made, self-liberated, and the sharpest man you willeversee. He is couture himself."-Marcus Samuelsson,New York Timesbestselling author ofYes, Chef "What James Baldwin is to American literature, Dapper Dan is to American fashion. He is the ultimate success saga, an iconic fashion hero to multiple generations, fusing street with highsartorial elegance. He is pure American style."-Andre Leon Talley,Voguecontributing editor and author
The chiffon trenches : a memoir by
Discover what truly happens behind the scenes in the world of high fashion in this detailed, storied memoir from style icon, bestselling author and former Vogue creative director André Leon Talley. During André Leon Talley's first magazine job assisting Andy Warhol at Interview, a fateful meeting with Karl Lagerfeld began a decades-long friendship and propelled Talley into the upper echelons by virtue of his shared knowledge and adoration of fashion. He moved to Paris as bureau chief of John Fairchild's Women's Wear Daily, befriending fashion's most important designers. But as Talley made friends, he also made enemies. A fraught encounter with a member of the house of Yves Saint Laurent sent him back to New York and into the offices of Vogue under Grace Mirabella. There, he developed an unlikely but intimate friendship with Anna Wintour, and as she rose to the top of Vogue's masthead, Talley became the most influential man in fashion. The Chiffon Trenches is a candid look at the who's who of the last fifty years of fashion, and proof that fact is always fascinatingly more devilish than fiction. André Leon Talley's engaging memoir tells the story of how he not only survived but thrived -- despite racism, illicit rumours and all the other challenges of this notoriously cutthroat industry -- to become one of the most legendary voices and faces in fashion.
Fashioning Masculinities by
From V&A curators Rosalind McKever and Claire Wilcox, Fashioning Masculinitiesisa visually stunning exploration of how fashion shapes ideas of masculinity. At a moment of unprecedented creativity in men's fashion and continuing reflections on gender, contemporary designers are questioning established forms, seeking to liberate wearers from traditional models of masculine dress. This book combines fashion with artistic and broader cultural histories --looking at the designers, tailors, and artists who have constructed and performed masculinity from the Renaissance to the present day. It traces connections across and beyond European menswear, celebrating both rich traditions and daring individualists. Divided into three parts, "Undressed" reveals the role of the body and underwear in fashioning masculinities. "Overdressed" explores the power dynamics of sartorial bravado, while "Redressed" deconstructs a modern masculine uniform: the black suit. Featuring a staggering range of cultural touchstones from Hercules to Virgil Abloh, Giovanni Battista Moroni to Jawaharlal Nehru, Yves Saint Laurent to Kehinde Wiley, Marcus Rashford, Marlene Dietrich, and even Captain America, Fashioning Masculinities challenges our preconceptions about menswear, revealing the fascinating historical roots beneath the power, artistry, and diversity of masculine attire and appearance today. "Billy Porter's hot pink Golden Globes cloak and Harry Style's embroidered Gucci suits are set to have a fashion face-off with the Belvedere Apollo and Auguste Rodin in the V&A's upcoming exhibition dedicated to the evolution of menswear." --Guardian on the exhibition "Key looks worn by fashion icons will also be interspersed throughout, from Harry Styles, Billy Porter, and Sam Smith to David Bowie and Marlene Dietrich, highlighting the multiplicities of masculine sartorial self-expression, dressing beyond the binary." --Women's Wear Daily on the exhibition Includes color illustrations
Cutting a Figure by
Examining portraits of black people over the past two centuries, Cutting a Figure argues that these images should be viewed as a distinct category of portraiture that differs significantly from depictions of people with other racial and ethnic backgrounds. The difference, Richard Powell contends, lies in the social capital that stems directly from the black subject's power to subvert dominant racist representations by evincing such traits as self-composure, self-adornment, and self-imagining. Powell forcefully supports this argument with evidence drawn from a survey of nineteenth-century portraits, in-depth case studies of the postwar fashion model Donyale Luna and the contemporary portraitist Barkley L. Hendricks, and insightful analyses of images created since the late 1970s. Along the way, he discusses major artists--such as Frédéric Bazille, John Singer Sargent, James Van Der Zee, and David Hammons--alongside such overlooked producers of black visual culture as the Tonka and Nike corporations. Combining previously unpublished images with scrupulous archival research, Cutting a Figure illuminates the ideological nature of the genre and the centrality of race and cultural identity in understanding modern and contemporary portraiture.
Vintage black glamour by
Using rarely accessed photographic archives and private collections, inspired by her family history, Nichelle Gainer has unearthed a revealing treasure trove of historic photographs of famous actors, dancers, writers and entertainers who worked in the 20th-century entertainment business, but who rarely appeared in the same publications as their white counterparts. Alongside the familiar images and stories of renowned performers such as Eartha Kitt, Lena Horne and Aretha Franklin are those of less well-remembered figures such as Bricktop, Pearl Primus, Diana Sands and many, many more. Vintage Black Glamour is a unique, sumptuous and revealing celebration of the lives and indomitable spirit of Black women of a previous era. Although talented, successful and ground-breaking, many of the women in these pages were ignored by mainstream media, but their life's work and attitude stand as inspiration for us still, today. With its stunning photographs and insightful biographies, this book is a hugely important.
Fashioning the Dandy by
The book explores the dandy as a cultural type across Europe and Russia from the eighteenth century through the present day. Olga Vainshtein offers a unique view on dandyism as a cultural tradition, based not merely on fashionable attire, but also as a particular lifestyle with specific standards of behaviour, bodily practices and conceptual approaches to dress. The dandy is described as the prototypical hero of the modern cult of celebrities. From clubbing manners, the techniques of virtual aristocratism, urban flâneurs and the correct way to examine people, Vainshtein walks us through optical duels and the techniques of visual assessment at social gatherings. Readers will learn about strategies of subversive behaviour found in practical jokes, the fine art of noble scandal, dry wit, bare-faced impudence and mocking politeness. Looking at dandyism as a nineteenth-century literary movement, Vainshtein examines representation of dandies in fiction. Finally, a large section is devoted to Russian and Soviet dandyism and the dandies of today.
