Why Did So Few Black Dandies Wear Color at the Met Gala?
On good taste and colonial aesthetics
Watching celebrities take over the red carpet on Monday night, an unwelcome sense of déjà vu came over me. Here was a sea of black and white tailoring that would not be out of place at the Karl Lagerfeld-themed gala in 2023. Was I stuck in the wrong livestream?
It wasn’t that the guests weren’t on theme or didn’t bring their fashion A-game. The majority of them wore exquisite ensembles that were indeed “tailored for them,” but in a year dedicated to Black dandyism—the global fashion revolution that encompasses the Sapeurs of Congo, the Rude Boys and Girls of Jamaica, 1940’s Zoot suit wearers and church goers of the American South—why did so few Black people wear color?
“Black folks have a very particular relationship with color,” writer and historian Jonathan Michael Square told me on a call. “We have a tolerance for color that is at odds with the prevailing taste for quiet luxury, which is pared down, minimalistic and very monochromatic.” Take Doechii’s Paris Fashion Week debut as an example. When she wore the yellow Valentino couture gown, she embodied this concept in all its glory, “serving looks” as Black dandies do and challenging racist notions of who gets to look good in couture. This colorful assertion through clothing is the energy I expected at this year’s Met Gala but it seems color was not on the mood board.
