A Stitch in Time: Ahead of the 2025 Met Gala, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Hosts a Discussion on the Sartorial Excellence and Influence of Harlem
For New York, Harlem serves as the epicenter of Black culture—from its melting pot of African-American, Caribbean, and West African inhabitants, to its historic landmarks, vibrant nightlife, and eclectic style.
On Tuesday evening, cultural tastemakers and industry professionals gathered at The Apollo Stages—a sparkling exhibition venue and modernized offshoot of the time-treasured Apollo Theater—for an intimate panel discussion that focused on Harlem’s influence and contribution to the evolution of Black fashion, art, and creativity.
Held inside the Stages’ Victoria Theater space, the talk was moderated by Monica L. Miller, Ph.D., professor and chair of Africana Studies at Barnard College, and served as a precursor to the 2025 Met Gala, which will celebrate “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” the spring exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. Addressing the well-dressed attendees who braved New York’s chilly April weather (a freeze warning was issued for the day’s 35-degree temperature) were the event’s panelists, including the National Black Theatre’s executive artistic director, Jonathan McCrory; fashion icon and historian Lana Turner; and bandleader Dandy Wellington.
“I’m always thinking about Harlem, and how it serves as a creative portal,” said Miller, the guest curator for the upcoming exhibit. She began the evening’s conversation by detailing the nuances of the show’s key subject—the Black dandy—and how it relates to Harlem’s sartorial heyday. Miller shared images of clothing and artifacts created by Black menswear designers that will be featured inside the museum’s galleries, including a 19th-century-inspired Harlequin print-patterned overcoat and pants designed by Tremaine Emory of Denim Tears, and a vintage portrait of an impeccably tailored Frederick Douglass, dressed in a sharp-collared white dress shirt, ascot, and double-breasted suit.
Inside the theater’s quiet and dimly lit auditorium, guests paid close attention to McCrory, who echoed Miller’s sentiments about the exhibit’s theme. McCrory’s assertion that Black male dandyism can be equated to a caterpillar transforming into butterfly, inspired explosive applause.
“It’s an important nexus that we’re in—society-wise—and our clothing allows us to create protection to be radically soft in a brittle world that wants us to be hard. And I believe we can build a world that’s more feminine than masculine, which allows for the softness of a creative birthing channel,” McCroy added.
Shifting the panel’s attention to Harlem’s past residents and the impact of their legendary style parades, Turner shared that her parents were amongst the Harlemites who paraded the streets donning their finest clothes either at church, out to dinner, or while dancing at the nightclubs in the 1950s and '60s—equating Harlem’s long stretch of Seventh Avenue to Paris’ Champs Elysée for Black creatives. Turner described her late father as being the epitome of a male dandy figure. “He always cut, what I call, a dashing figure,” she said. "He always wore a Stetson hat, a suit, a tie, and polished shoes.” She likened his style to that of a high-level executive, though he worked as a chauffeur. “There’s always aspiration,” she added.
Deconstructing the rich history of Black style—and how the lack of access to capital and resources inadvertently helped to shape it—Wellington described his own style as "an echo of the past, but also a portal to the future and its potential. Black people have always remixed, sampled and transmogrified fashion—and we are always able to create something new. I love the quote: vintage style, not vintage values.”
The event closed out with a brief audience Q&A.
“I’m excited about actually going to visit the exhibit when it opens, and seeing the historical sequence of what dandyism looked like from the 18th-Century up to the present day,” said attendee Rachel Francois, adding that she's drawn to learning more about "what it meant for those individuals–from Harlem and across the diaspora–to show up and show out.”
Adding an exclamation point to the conversation, Miller, whose 2009 book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity inspired the Superfine exhibit, told Vogue, “I’m excited and I feel very honored to be a guest curator, as I did not anticipate a book that was published 15 years ago would become a 3D experience. I also feel a real sense of responsibility to the community, and I’m hoping that we’ve done the subject justice.”
The high style of the 1920s and its Uptown Renaissance may be long gone, but Harlem’s entrenched creativity could still be felt as guests exited the theater and headed out into the brisk nighttime air–strolling underneath The Apollo’s illuminated marquee. Below, see stylish photos from outside the event.
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