The Costume Institute (@MetCostumeInstitute)

Explore how Black style shaped history. ✨ Join Andrew Bolton, Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute, and guest curator Monica L. Miller for a tour of the exhibition “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” The Costume Institute’s spring 2025 exhibition presents a cultural and historical examination of Black style over three hundred years through the concept of dandyism. Want to learn more? Go behind the scenes on June 20 for "Making Superfine," where Miller will be joined by artists Torkwase Dyson and Tanda Francis to share stories about bringing the artistic vision for the exhibition to life. Head to the link in bio to learn more.

Explore Black style over three hundred years 🪡✨ Get a sneak peek of our new exhibition “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” which opens to the public May 10 and will be celebrated Monday, May 5 at The Met Gala. Which garment are you most excited to see in the exhibition? #SuperfineStyle #CostumeInstitute

Explore the extraordinary stories of stylish Black individuals across art, literature, music, and society. Coming May 2025, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” will examine the historical and cultural emergence of the Black dandy. Inspired by curator Monica Miller’s 2009 book, “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity,” the exhibition will present a cultural and historical examination of the Black dandy, from the figure’s emergence in Enlightenment Europe during the 18th century to today’s incarnations in cities around the world. Colman Domingo ( @kingofbingo), @LewisHamilton, @ASAPRocky, @Pharrell Williams, and Anna Wintour will co-chair the next #CostumeInstitute Benefit on the First Monday in May. LeBron James ( @kingjames) will serve as honorary chair. The Benefit, also known as The Met Gala, celebrates the opening of the 2025 exhibition “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” and provides The Costume Institute with its primary source of annual funding for exhibitions, publications, acquisitions, operations, and capital improvements. “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” opens to the public on May 10 and will be celebrated at the 2025 Met Gala on May 5. #SuperfineStyle #MetGala2025

The “Cool” section of “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” takes its inspiration from the Kariba suit, which replaced Western suiting as official formal dress in Jamaica in the early 1970s. Couturier Ivy Ralph founded her brand House of Ivy in the 1960s, and her prescient Kariba (or Kareeba) suit became her most enduring creation. The suit—which shares its name with the world’s largest human-made lake, located between Zambia and Zimbabwe—offered its wearers an alternative kind of formality that was defined by ease rather than stricture. Consisting of a tailored shirt worn untucked over matching trousers, the Kariba was embraced by many in newly independent Jamaica for its practicality in hot weather and for its political significance as a sartorial gesture of decolonization and national pride. Its most visible and ardent wearer was Jamaican prime minister Michael Manley, who, alongside members of his People’s National Party, adopted the Kariba for governmental and formal occasions. Available in both bright and dark colors, long and short sleeves, as well as formal and “sport” versions, Karibas also became popular in other Caribbean and African nations. See this on view now in #SuperfineStyle. // Kariba shirt, Ivy Ralph OD (Jamaican, 1928–2018) for House of Ivy (Jamaican, founded 1960s), 1970s; Ivy Coco Maurice Collection.

The large number of surviving garments by the House of Worth in The #CostumeInstitute collection is a testament to Worth’s immense popularity among the American clientele in the 19th century. Until September 7, see five pieces from our collection in Paris, on view in the “Worth: Inventing Haute Couture” exhibition, including this purple velvet evening dress. This piece showcases many of Worth’s design trademarks: lavish fabrics and trimmings, his incorporation of elements of historic dress, and his attention to fit. The dress is cut along the popular “Empire” line, a style pioneered a few years before by Worth protégé Paul Poiret. The elevated waistline, delineated here with an elaborate trompe-l’œil belt embellished with crystals and sequins, suggests the court style of approximately a century before, when women like the Empress Josephine, wife of Napoleon, set the fashion for garments evoking the sumptuousness of the Roman Empire. The “belt” seems to secure two long streamers of purple velvet, ending in a beaded fringe, that descend from the shoulders at the rear and from the waist at the center front, floating over layers of purple and ivory silk tulle. Worn around 1910 by Abigail Pearce Truman Chapman, the wife of prominent senator Nelson Aldrich, the couple were patrons of art, a legacy they instilled in a long line of their descendants. Among their 11 children, their daughter Abigail married John D. Rockefeller Jr. in 1901. Their son, John D. Rockefeller III along with his wife, donated this Worth dress to @metmuseum in 1977. Head to @petitpalais_musee and @palaisgallieramuseedelamode to learn more about the exhibition and stay tuned as we highlight more Costume Institute objects à Paris. // Evening dress, House of Worth (French, 1858–1956), ca. 1910; Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd, 1977 (1977.158.1).

Sporting a winning look 🏆 The ‘Champion’ section in "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style" explores how dandyism in the world of athletics, illuminating not only how success in sports can be a mode of distinction that allows Black men access to style but also how athletics has increasingly influenced men’s fashion. Here, Guest Curator Monica L. Miller discusses some of the sports highlighted in the show, such as horse racing, basketball, and boxing, exploring the history and the figures that left lasting sartorial legacies as well as some of the contemporary designers who have elevated sports and athletic wear. Tap the link in bio to watch the full exhibition tour. #SuperfineStyle

In the 1930s and 40s, the Nicholas Brothers captivated audiences from Harlem to Hollywood. This summer, find the tapdancing duo in two presentations at @metmuseum. On view in the Johnson Gallery (851) until August 24, a photograph by Remie Lohsie suspends one of the Brothers in a split-second leap. Covertly captured with a miniature camera, the photograph overcomes compositional and technical odds. Training his lens straight into the spotlight, Lohse follows the dancer into its beam, as it alights on his top hat and licks the tails of his tux. The performance took place in 1933 at the Cotton Club, a notoriously segregated venue in Harlem, where the Brothers shared a bill with Duke Ellington and Ethel Waters, and tapped alongside a shimmying chorus line. Their own routines synthesized ballet and tap choreography with acrobatics, introducing a refined vocabulary of vaulting jumps and synchronized, skating steps. Hurtling towards fame at the time of this photograph, they would soon head to Hollywood. The next slide shows their famous dance from the 1943 hit “Stormy Weather,” which appears in “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” The ebullient, improvisatory sequence was captured in a single take. In film and photograph alike, sharp tailoring offsets the expressive choreography. Never encumbered by their evening attire, the Brothers traverse the stage with athleticism and easy grace. 📷: Remie Lohse, “Cotton Club, Harlem,” 1933. Gelatin silver print (2022.328); 🎥: The Nicholas Brothers dancing to Cab Calloway’s “Jumpin’ Jive” in “Stormy Weather” (d. Andrew L. Stone, 1943) #SuperfineStyle

“I’m Ghanaian—how do you make an African suit?” –Virgil Abloh When Virgil Abloh made history as the first Black American of African descent to be appointed artistic director of a French luxury design house, he considered the possibilities of his role, asking himself this question during an interview. Two garments on view in “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” offers some answers: an ensemble with an all-over motif of the African continent in a houndstooth-style pattern (left), and another comprised of a tailored white suit with an LV-branded “kente” blanket draped over the shoulder (right). Abloh was inspired by his heritage, basing the garments on a photograph of his grandmother and simultaneously honoring his parents, Eunice and Nee Abloh. He incorporated the draped forms of traditional Ghanaian garments in both suiting and streetwear, announcing to the world the multiplicity of his identity. // Ensembles, Virgil Abloh (American, 1980–2021) for LOUIS VUITTON (French, founded 1854), fall/winter 2019–20 menswear (left) and fall/winter 2021–22 menswear (right); Courtesy Collection LOUIS VUITTON. #SuperfineStyle

How do African dress traditions inform and amplify the possibilities of contemporary fashion and Black identity? In this latest “Perspectives” article, Idelle Taye, Founder of Guzangs ( @guzangs), expands upon the themes showcased in “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” and traces the threads between African dress traditions and the contemporary designers reshaping them today. At the link in bio, learn more about designers like Adeju Thompson ( @lagosspaceprogramme), who repositions the indigo-dyed Yoruba cloth as a site of queerness, lineage, and futurity; Imane Ayissi ( @imane_ayissi), who draws from his Cameroonian heritage and classical training in Paris to create an Afro-European fusion that resists reduction; and Wanda Lephoto ( @wandalephoto), who uses his collections to retell South African dress history with both complexity and tenderness. These designers are all part of Guzangs, a platform dedicated to African fashion, culture, and heritage through editorial storytelling, curation, and commerce. Want to learn more? Be sure to sign up for a virtual talk with Thompson, Ayissi, and Lephoto moderated by #SuperfineStyle Guest Curator Monica L. Miller, taking place this Wednesday, August 13 at 12pm EST. Find the link to register, also at the link in bio. Slide 1: Adeju Thompson for Lagos Space Programme; slide 2: Imane Ayissi; slide 3: Wanda Lephoto

📣 Next week! On Wednesday, August 13, tune into a virtual conversation that reflects and expands upon the rich sartorial expression showcased in “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” Join designers Adeju Thompson ( @lagosspaceprogramme), Imane Ayissi ( @imane_ayissi), and Wanda Lephoto ( @wandalephoto) to learn more about the roles that cultural exploration, innovation, and production hold within their practices, and consider connections between African style traditions and Black dandyism.  Moderated by Monica L. Miller, the conversation will explore perspectives on heritage-inspired craftsmanship, sustainability, and the use of local resources, as well as the joys and challenges of international success, from three of the continent’s most exciting designers. Gunzangs ( @guzangs) is a media and cultural platform dedicated to documenting and celebrating African fashion and global diasporic design. Click the link in bio to register for the talk. Please note that this program includes interpretation from French into English.

On the African continent and in the diaspora, Black dandyism has a long history of hybridizing regional and national forms of African dress with Western tailoring traditions. Follow Guest curator Monica L. Miller as she discusses “Heritage,” a section of “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” highlighting how African motifs and themes have been used in fashion as a point of pride and connection from figures like W.E.B. Du Bois to designers like Virgil Abloh. Tap the link in bio to watch the full exhibition tour.

Bringing the dazzling dragon back to life ✨ While this evening dress worn by Anna May Wong in the 1934 film “Limehouse Blues” is in stable condition, scattered areas of the gold gelatin sequins on the dragon were lost over time (slides 2 and 3). Ahead of its display in the exhibition “Monstrous Beauty: A Feminist Revision of Chinoiserie,” Kaelyn Garcia, Assistant Conservator, worked on conserving the piece. Kaelyn carefully replicated the original sequins by using newly sourced sequins trimmed to size using a leather punch tool. This method ensured that the newly compensated areas matched the varying sizes of the original design. She then tinted the sequins with acrylic paint to recreate the aged patina. Swipe to view a close-up look at one of the many treated areas (slides 4 and 5) to revitalize dragon on the back of the dress. 📣 Only a couple more weeks to see this dress on view! Visit “Monstrous Beauty” @metmuseum until August 17. // Evening dress, Travis Banton (American, 1894–1958), 1934; Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Anna May Wong, 1956 (2009.300.1507). #TheMet #CostumeInstitute