Unpacking Superfine: Tailoring Black Style (Part 2)
A conversation with Guest Curator, Professor Monica L. Miller
Hello all, before we dive into the second part of unpacking the exhibition, a few housekeeping notes:
Sorry for the delay in getting part two out (you can read part one here). To be totally honest, I was holding out hope for a chance to speak with Professor Monica L. Miller, Guest Curator of the exhibition and author of Slaves to Fashion—and I’m happy to report that we connected. I got to chat with her and so today’s letter is the interview that took place on Friday. We talked about the exhibition layout, what didn’t make it into the show, and what she wishes she could’ve included. If anyone from the Met team is reading—thank you for making this conversation happen. And on the off chance Monica is reading, thank you for your time and your work.
If you listen to
podcast (and if you haven’t heard that episode yet, what are you doing?), you already know that part three is still coming. Instead of publishing it here, it’ll appear in a separate publication—which I’ll reveal on release day :).I know this week was light on shoppable goodies from me, but diving into Met coverage turned out to be a much-needed shopping reset. Consider the palette cleansed and ready for fresh finds.
Lately, I’ve been very into tube tops—this one just arrived in the mail and has the perfect amount of 13 Going on 30 Jenna Rink energy. There’s also a scene in Fatal Attraction (yes, an odd reference for tube tops) that lingers in my mind. I won’t get into the details—watch it for yourself, or maybe don’t—but there’s something undeniably appealing about a tube top in summer. It’s like the cool, distant cousin of the t-shirt and tank: easy to wear in the same situations, but with a bit more tension and edge. Take this one that looks like you're wearing a basket—in a hot way. Maybe it’s the Peter Müller Alaïa effect that’s making the tube top more desirable.
Regarding shoes, I’ve been practically living in these. They go with everything, including a tweed jacket.
On the beauty front, I picked up a few things from Hanni (FYI: their biannual sale kicks off on the 19th of this month.). I restocked this body oil—it’s super lightweight and the perfect base for fragrance since it helps scent stick better. I also picked up this in-shower body balm to test out. My track record with in-shower moisturizers is mixed; in the past, they’ve left my skin feeling drier. But I’ve heard great things about this one, so I’m hopeful. And finally, I grabbed this, which is ideal for travel. There have been too many moments when I’ve realized I missed entire sections of my legs while shaving(don’t ask), and this saves me from jumping back in the shower or—worse—dry shaving. It also doubles as a moisturizer, which is a win.
For home, the last thing I bought was a paper-mâché trinket box. I lost an auction for one and immediately turned to trusty eBay, where I found a gold mine of options that soothed the sting of losing. (Similar finds here, here, and here.)
Now, enough with the logistics (and the shopping). Let’s get to the meat and potatoes...
I designed that book to talk about—and really to see—that dandyism, you know, happens, or is employed by Black people in particular kinds of moments. When things are in transition. The dandy becomes a figure of critiquing, of analysis, of notice. Of provocation during moments where things are changing. And we have to think—we have to start thinking differently or more complexly, or differently complexly.
Monica L. Miller
A Conversation with Professor Monica L. Miller
*this interview has been edited for length and clarity*
Jalil Johnson
So, I'm going to jump right in. I was curious about the approach to how open the exhibition is. What drew you to this idea of having more of an open space?
Monica Miller
Physically or conceptually.
JJ
Both.
MM
Both. Okay, okay. I think I'll talk about the physical and then the conceptual there. I mean, obviously, you know, truly related. So many Costume Institute exhibitions, before this one, are designed as essays. And some of them—which means they are not definitive statements. It means they are kind of takes.
So if you think back to maybe—maybe a show that was similar to this one, like Camp—Camp was a take. It wasn't a definitive thing. And it's designed, actually, to create debate, conversation, thoughtfulness. So this exhibition was designed in similar ways.
And when we were thinking about how to organize it, we had—you know, we started with the kind of architecture of my book, which is historical, yes, but it's not a definitive history. It’s not like, this is every moment in which, you know, a Black dandy showed up or Black dandyism happened. I designed that book to talk about—and really to see—that dandyism, you know, happens, or is employed by Black people in particular kinds of moments. When things are in transition. The dandy becomes a figure of critiquing, of analysis, of notice. Of provocation during moments where things are changing. And we have to think—we have to start thinking differently or more complexly, or differently complexly.
So we really wanted the exhibition to do that. But we also had to tell the historical story. Because we wanted people to kind of get the history of this.
So in terms of the openness, we thought, okay, so what kind of architecture can we provide? And, you know, I teach at Barnard College, which is the alma mater of Zora Neale Hurston, who was our first Black-identified student. And The Characteristics of Negro Expression, her essay, kind of came to mind. And in that essay, she’s really trying to define—it's one of the first, I’m going to say—one of the first—I don’t want to make a definitive claim—but one of the first essays that really tries to think about how Black people express themselves. Like, what do we see in the culture that we can identify as moves. That people within Black cultures use. Either to express themselves, to comment on a representation they don’t like. I mean, what’s happening?
So she—she came up with 12 different characteristics. They’re super quirky,
MM
But beautiful. One of them is Drama, which we could all understand. Like, one of them is, you know, Asymmetry, another one is Mimicry. I mean—so, but those—we tried to work with those categories, but they weren’t exactly right for this topic. But we’re like, okay, shift: what are the 12 ways that we could describe Black Dandyism that allow us not only to tell this historical—us to tell this long historical, cultural, history narrative—but that also allow us to—that echo each other in particular kinds of ways, so that we can see, even if history is progressing, that some of the moves keep repeating. With a difference.
JJ
Well, with that, I have a question too, because it's interesting—there's not a straight line to go through the exhibition.
MM
Absolutely not.
JJ
Because as soon as you enter, of course, there's Ownership and then to the right there’s Presence. The person can really take their own path.
MM
Yes, they can take their own path. And right—what you said is like, you come in, you see Ownership in front of you and Presence to the right, and then like, kind of right at a catty-corner is Distinction. That, if you just talk about Black Dandyism in those three ways, like you're getting a piece, you're getting—you’re getting enough narrative that you can take it with you to the other parts of the exhibition.
So we wanted to start slowly so that people kind of pay a little bit of attention and spend some time, like at the very beginning. Because once we get to the second part of the exhibition, you can really kind of range widely because you've learned. What's in the first part, and then you kind of apply that. In the second part.
So that was our concern. But then also we talked with Torkwase Dyson, who is the artist who did the exhibition design. Torkwase read my book. And we also spent time speaking to her about how we were thinking about—we were thinking about the curation, how it was developing. And she kept that in mind. So we were working kind of iteratively, where, you know, we're saying, we're doing this now, and she would kind of respond, and we were doing this now. So it became a real collaboration.
So that it was super important to Torkwase, for example, that the historical garments were displayed kind of intimately. That they would be close, that you could look at them, that you could imagine people wearing them, that they were not, like, really, really disembodied. It was really important to her that those historical garments be displayed standing up rather than laying down.
Often when you get historical garments, they can't stay on a mannequin for that long. They're fragile. So we had these conversations about how we were going to do that. It was also really important for her to think about cameras—like she came up with the camera aperture, and then also the stage. The camera aperture is so important because what she saw theoretically in my book was the ways that people represent themselves and are represented by technology.
The stage—really important too, because Black people have been displayed in certain ways. But they also perform themselves on the stage. Performance is so much a part, of Black expressive culture.
She wanted to design a space that was grounded and transcendent. That had moments of pause. That had moments of, you know, kind of moments of joy and strength. So I think you see that in the architecture.
And, you know, I think the expansive definition of dandyism and the historical range is really reflected in the way that the exhibition kind of meanders. It allows people—you know, allows people to kind of be inside of the space but not feel overwhelmed, I hope.
JJ
And with that historical part—so, your book came out in 2009, and in the catalog, you talk about how you take the idea of the dandy and follow the history of the Black dandy through more of a literary lens. But you're having to deal with capital-F Fashion in the exhibition. So I'm wondering, having to look back at your work in 2024 and also into 2025, what were the big differences there? Were there things that you had to change your opinion on or think about differently?
MM
I don't know if I changed my opinion, but, you know, one—somebody else asked me the question, like, does dandyism, you know, ever end? Does Black dandyism ever end? And I think in my book, I was asking that question more forcefully. Like, I was thinking—I was really thinking about the relationship of dandyism to the fashion system. And ultimately to kind of capitalism.
I felt like there were a number of artists that I talk about in the book that kept killing the dandy off. And I was like, what does that mean? You know what I mean? I don't think I answered the question in the book, but I was like, what does that mean? Like, do people want to get rid of this?
What does it mean to get rid of it? What does it mean to have it end? But I think in the ensuing time since then, you know, dandyism hasn't ended at all. It changes, as it always does. Black representation has to change over time—always change. Black people are always pushing it. Because if they don't they quote-unquote "get captured.” I mean, things are appropriated and reappropriated.
For me, it was really fascinating to see the way that some of those changes are showing up. Not only on the street, like, so as street style. But also the ways that, again, very contemporary, sometimes really young fashion designers, are confronting histories of dandyism—moments of styling out. The way in which they're incorporating them—historical ones, for example, more recent ones—into their work. So it hasn't stopped at all, hasn't ended, and has actually taken kind of, like, fabulous new forms. So in that way, yeah, that's a big change.
JJ
This will probably be my last question. Of course you couldn’t put everything in the exhibition because it would be too much. So, is there maybe one thing that you had to take out at the last minute that you really wanted to include? Or what were some things that you really wish you could have added in?
MM
Ooh, that's a tough one. You know, I can talk about a couple of, like, kind of misses. I mean, we were really down to the wire on that Prince shirt.
JJ
Oh, yes.
MM
Like, like, hoping, hoping, hoping, hoping. And then when it finally came through, we were just like, yes—you know, very excited about that. Not because it's Prince, primarily—but because it's telling a really important story in that exhibition.
I can think of one other item that maybe we didn’t get that I would have—I think would have been fun, but we replaced kind of nicely—was we were really hoping to have a pair of Muhammad Ali’s Everlast black and white boxing shorts. And we may know this for sure—they're modeled off of a tuxedo. They’re black with a white stripe down the side. And it's sort of like—it’s really in that section of the exhibition—it’s really interesting and important to think about the ways that Black athletes, especially really successful ones, really sartorially signal their success and their ambition.
Like, Ali was just so amazing. And the way he would stepped into that ring to do his work, you know? And he wanted to be not only dressed for the occasion, but, dressed for some other occasion.
So, like, the idea that those shorts would convey that. But I think it would have been fun to have the shorts. On the other hand, everybody can see them, in their heads. So there are some items that we can just mention and not have to show, that people really are—are really familiar with.
JJ
And then, one thing about the Prince shirt—because in the catalog, the shirt that’s photographed is different from what’s actually in the exhibition. Correct?
MM
Yes, yeah. Well, the one we don’t have a photograph in the catalog—we just have a comparative image of Prince in a lace and ruffle shirt. Yeah. We were hoping for lace and ruffle. We ended up with ruffle.
JJ
Oh yes, I did. Fantastic!
MM
They’re beautiful. Jeweled—purple jewels. Didn’t know that that was going to be there, and was really, really excited when that came through. It tells you what you need to know.
JJ
Yes. Well, thank you so much. I won't take any more of your time, but thank you so much for this.
The exhibition officially opened to the public yesterday, so if you’re in the city, be sure to plan your visit. Wishing you a wonderful Mother’s Day.
Talk soon,
XX
JJ
That was such a good interview, thank you, Jalil!
Oh! So good!! I sped through this interview & now going back to re-read. So rich & thoughtful; thank you both xo