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Dressed: The History of Fashion
Superfine: Tailoring Black Style with Monica L. Miller, Part II
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- [00:02]
Monica L. Miller
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April Callahan
Details.
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Monica L. Miller
Close your eyes, exhale, feel your.
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April Callahan
Body relax and let go of whatever you're carrying today.
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Monica L. Miller
Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. I got them delivered free from 1-800-contacts. Oh my gosh, they're so fast. And breathe. Oh sorry. I almost couldn't breathe when I saw the discount they gave me on my first order.
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Cassidy Zachary
Oh sorry.
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Monica L. Miller
Namaste. Visit 1-800-contacts.com today to save on your first order. 1-800-contacts.
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April Callahan
The history of fashion is a production of dressed media with over 8 billion people in the world, we all have one thing in common. Every day, we all get dressed welcome.
- [01:16]
Cassidy Zachary
To Dressed the History of Fashion, a podcast that explores the who, what, when of why we wear. We are friends, fashion historians and your.
- [01:24]
April Callahan
Hosts, April Callahan and Cassidy Zachary, Dress listeners. Welcome to part two of our conversation with Dr. Monica L. Miller, the guest curator of the most talked about exhibition of the year. And of course, I am talking about the Costume Institute's exhibition Super Fine Tailoring Black Style, which is a historical and cultural examination of black style through the lens of dandyism, currently on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. And it is also well worth mentioning, April, that this is the museum's first first exhibition devoted to menswear in 20 years.
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Cassidy Zachary
Yes, and one that is uncoincidentally coming on the heels of a very vibrant renaissance in men's fashion that is in no small part spearheaded by many of the Black designers featured within the exhibition. And these contemporary designers, like the Black Dandy, are really the pillars of this groundbreaking exhibition, which is as much about celebrating the past as it is about the present of Black Dandyism, which is an intentional practice very much alive and well today.
- [02:28]
April Callahan
And on Wednesday's episode, Monica took us behind the scenes of the exhibit, introducing us to her research, the inspirations behind the exhibition and the process of creating it. And today she is going to walk us through each of the exhibition's 12 sections, and we have so much beautifully textured ground to cover. Today we are just going to jump right back into our conversation. And I will say that something I think that is so brilliant about this exhibition is it's not chronological. Within each of these sections, you have the past and present conversations with the future happening, but there is a movement to it that moves you in time. And you start in the 18th century, which is where you trace the origins of Black Dandyism, which is this incredibly pivotal period in the Black Dandy's trajectory. And this is something explored in the first two sections of the exhibit, which are ownership and presence. In what ways is dandyism imposed upon black men during this period, but also, most importantly, subverted by them as a strategic tool of radical self expression?
- [03:28]
Monica L. Miller
What you described is exactly what happens in the moment of, I think, contact between Africans and Europeans in the moment that the slave trade begins. I mean, I really think about Black Dandyism's origins as the moment when African and Western traditions and hierarchies of dress and adornment meet. Right. So as soon as, say, for example, some black men and boys are fashioned, made to wear, say, for example, livery garments, right? Servants dress, elevated high fashion. Servants dress. As soon as that happens, they understand immediately that fashion and dress have power and understand that that power can be used against them, but that also they can use that power for themselves. So I really think of the dandyism as starting in this moment where that understanding happens at moments of contact. But in the exhibition, we, again, it's hard to visualize that. Right? So. So we do it actually in two different ways. When you come into the exhibition, you would see one of the cases that's. Or primary case that's there right. When you come into the exhibition is a juxtaposition of two different coins. And why those are important is that one of the coins is called dandiprap, which is maybe related to the origin of the word dandy. So if we think about symbolically and metaphorically dandy as being associated with this silver coin, we notice that it's currency. It is related to value, it's related to worth, it's related to forms of exchange, it's related to economies. The other piece that's in that case is a pendant by the contemporary designers La Chanture. And it's a gold pendant that's been stamped with the face of an African ancestor. And the pendant, the coin, is imaginary currency in a Caribbean that had never been colonized. So from the very beginning, we're juxtaposing two different systems of value. One that is maybe European and one that is Caribbean or of African descent. Right. So we have already this tension in currency, in value, in self worth. The other two garments that are at the very beginning of that exhibition are two livery garments from the 18th century. One of them is trimmed in gold lace, and the other one has silver buttons on it that are stamped with the enslaver's kind of coat of arms or symbol of them. In the juxtaposition of those four different garments, we're getting a conversation about being fashioned. Right. And fashioning the self, about what it means to have to wear these garments and what it might mean to understand their power and use that power towards some other mode of self fashioning. So that's what the first sections of the exhibition are really about. The sort of establishment of that dialectic and then seeing in some ways how it plays out in different moments in time, but also in different places. So the exhibition travels to Haiti, it travels to other parts of the Caribbean, it travels to Africa or, you know, the ways in which designers bring in their own African heritage.
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April Callahan
Yeah. And something that's fantastic, the exhibition catalog. And I'll keep bringing it up because I have not been able, unfortunately, to see the exhibition in person. But I've read this catalog from COVID to cover. And what's so fantastic is the catalog features numerous essays by prominent black scholars and people working within the field of Black fashion studies. Many names our listeners will recognize because they've been guests on the show like Elizabeth Way and Kimberly Jenkins. And then in this section, Jonathan Michael Square, who writes an essay in the catalog to accompany one of those livery waistcoats that you address, which is by Brooks Brothers. And so those were definitely two of the garments worth noting in that section, as you just spoke into, and remarkable that they survive and their provenance survives also. We would be remiss to not mention Julia Soubise, who's in this section. Can you tell us about this gentleman? Because he really is an exemplar of that transition from object to self fashioned dandy.
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Monica L. Miller
Exactly. So Soubise is such an important. He's an important character in my book and he's a very important character in this exhibition because he is an excellent and I think, primary example. He's one of the first black dandies that I was able to identify in 18th century London. He was one of the first people who, you know, I say, in my book, we transitioned right, from being a fop into a dandy, from somebody who was being maybe dressed right, to somebody who really starts to style out and does that when he's manumitted, when he reaches a certain social prominence, and part of his critique or provocation has to do with, again, this sort of questioning of identity. He's saying, oh, you thought I was an enslaved person and that was all that I could be. But in fact, I have all of these other ways in which I can distinguish myself. After being freed, he starts to take boxes at the opera, he starts to collect, becomes well educated, becomes an opera singer, becomes a man about town, maybe plays Othello on the stage. Just really starts doing all of these things during a moment when so many of his fellows were being traded and enslaved, saying, you know what? We are actually human. We can learn all of these things. We have intelligence, we have all of this stuff, right? And not only do you have that, but we have critique. We can actually use the tools that are being used against us in an offensive, offensive, like, not defensive way. And what's so interesting about the space that Soubise occupies in the exhibition is that the one thing that we do know about him, really specifically, there's a lot of hearsay about him, but is that he loved hothouse flowers and perfume. So he would walk into a room or walk out of a room, and people would say, I sent Soubise, right? So he was both pressed but, like, kind of omnipresent in people's imagination because he was so troubling as a figure, as an extravagant black man of fashion. The current phrase is he lived rent free, right? In people's heads, right? But also part of that living rent free meant that he could be, you know, his scent, right, was everywhere in the exhibition. We really played with that idea and visualize him in relationship to flowers, in relationship to blossoming, relationship to blooming, in relationship to moving from a kind of anonymous, enslaved person into this person who blossoms, right, and has personality, character, critique, irony, wit, gesture, all of those things. So, yeah, Soubisa is really important in terms of moving from this moment of being he himself, from a moment of being fashioned to really and truly fashioning himself.
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April Callahan
Yes. And again, a theme that is at the heart of this exhibition and one that you explore throughout into the next two sections, is this idea that fashionable dress is an incredibly powerful and versatile entity, and it serves many different and often competing functions, some of which we've just discussed, as it can both dehumanize, right, be imposed on people, but at the same time, those people can then take it and grant themselves agency and self possession. And so this competing nature is something that is especially clear in the 19th century, when fashionable clothing was used to both distinguish the accomplishments of prominent black military leaders and also disguise enslaved men and women on their harrowing journeys towards freedom. These themes are at the heart of the next two exhibition sections, Distinction and Disguise. Can you talk about how black dandies harnessed this dual nature of fashion, using it to both stand out and blend in during this period?
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Monica L. Miller
Absolutely. The distinction section is really related to, like, we also think about. One of the main themes in the exhibition is about tailoring. Savo Row, as a space for. For master tailors really gets its beginning in relationship to military dress. Right. Dandyism has this sort of precision that is also precision and intentionality. It's also related to this disciplining of the body that happens with military dress. So one of the things we wanted to really point out in the distinction section has to do with how black bodies embody. Have the potential right to embody military dress in a really different way, especially if we think about it in relationship to Haiti. So the distinction section is really focused. Haiti and the Haitian Revolution, it being the first independent black republic in the Western Hemisphere. And Toussaint l' Ouverture, thinking about the ways in which depictions of him and other Haitian presidents and emperors really nod to very traditional forms of French military dress. But when it's on, when these garments are worn and in some ways performed by Haitian men, they take on a very different meaning related to the kind of frisson of self liberation in that section. The contemporary designers are really also doing a lot right in terms of the ways in which they deconstruct, reconstruct, examine, and question the relationship of military dress to black masculinity. So there's one incredible garment in that section by Olivier Rustang for Balmain, part of the Balmain army, where it's a kind of, like, exaggerated Brandenburg military jacket with these beautiful and large old epaulettes right on it. That's a really magnificent gesture toward that. So clothing is absolutely about. Military clothing in particular in this section is really absolutely about distinction. And is also distinction in relationship to command, self command and authority that we can think about in relationship to this history of Haiti and what it offers us. The disguise section is another iteration of the ways in which clothing is so important and sometimes an actual vehicle of self liberation. Right. We think about the absconding enslaved in the early 19th century. We'll notice if we read the ads for them, they're wearing very particular and sometimes very fancy dress and are also described as excessively fond of dress. Will attempt to appear Like a gentleman. And we'll also realize that also detailed in some of those ads is the incredible wardrobes that people took with them when they escaped. That is so important because an absconding enslaved person had to change clothes in order to look different, sometimes to appear to be free. Right. Or appear to be of. In particularly of certainly a different class, sometimes as part of passing. And the clothing that they took with them was also useful in that it could be sold on a secondhand clothing market. So sometimes the ability to change clothes, the ability to dress above your class, the ability to appear like a gentleman, is related to actual liberation. It was the mode by which you could escape enslavement and reach both a metaphorical as well as an actual right. Free place.
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April Callahan
Yes. And something that is incredibly apparent in the story of William and Ellen Craft, which is something that is centered in the exhibition catalog and also in the exhibition. Because this is just a remarkable story about the transformative power of fashion and how fashion literally speaks volumes without saying anything. That's how powerful it is within society that for you to wear and adopt a certain item of clothing, certain ensemble of clothing, which is what Ellen did. And I'll let you tell us the story, it communicates. Right. And is incredibly important and was incredibly central to their ability to escape.
- [15:33]
Monica L. Miller
Yes, absolutely. So the Craft story is so amazing. Right. Ellen and William Craft were an enslaved couple who devised an elaborate sartorial masquerade that allowed them to self emancipate. Their plan was that Ellen would dress. She was very fair skinned, so she would dress up as a white gentleman and her husband William would pretend to be her enslaved servant. And they would be dressed in a very high class manner so that they could just seamlessly move through space. For over a year, Ellen and William assembled the clothing that they were going to need for this escape. Ellen was a seamstress, so she modified the clothing, tailored it so that it would fit her specifically, and again, look like that they were of a particular class. They also saved money to buy a white beaver hat that. That was a luxury item at the time that William would wear. Right. So enslaver and servant would be dressed in the highest fashions of the day so that again, they would be able to escape hopefully without notice. So they dressed in this clothing, got on a boat and then a train and made it to freedom. But they were almost caught because the hat that William had on, this white beaver hat was actually so expensive that somebody came up to them and berated Ellen for dressing her servant in such a fine Piece of. And such a fine accessory, saying that there is no way that an enslaved person should be wearing such a thing. So they overshot with the hat. Right. But with everything else, they managed to do this masquerade that allowed them to.
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April Callahan
Self emancipate an incredible story and an incredible artifact. You have, I think, not one, but two examples of white beaver top hats in the exhibition. And I have to say, I learned so much through this exhibition. But this was definitely one of the more revelatory aspects of it for me as a fashion historian, because I actually have never really encountered. I'm not a menswear specialist, but I've not really encountered white beaver top hats because we're so familiar with black top hats. But once you pointed this out, I can't unsee it. And now they're everywhere. There's so many examples throughout the exhibition which I think is just remarkable. Including in the next section, which is entitled Freedom, which is. Is all about how the black dandy trope was both defined and defied and really focuses on a number of satirical prints that sought to ridicule and dehumanize black men and women engaging in fashion the 19th century. And the white top hat is in a number of these, which I find really fascinating. Can you talk about these prints and what they tell us about the societal anxieties at this time, but also more importantly, about the people they represented?
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Monica L. Miller
Sure. The prints that you're talking about are primarily from a series called Life in Philadelphia, which was made by Edward Clay in the mid part of the 19th century. And these prints are again, fascinating documents. Right. In that they're racist caricatures, but the racism in there is really specific to black bodies and fashion. I read them as a response and a critique of what was the emerging black middle class. There was an emerging black middle class that was growing in places like Philadelphia in particular, but also in New York and Boston at the early part of the 19th century, where some black folks who had been free for generations or people who were more recently emancipated, started to become incredibly successful. Their skills, knowledge, meant that they were becoming not only wealthy, but also in some ways, pillars of their communities. They were some of the most active abolitionists at the time. Right. So they were not only themselves presenting as gentlemen, as potential citizens, as people with power and money. Right. But they were also working towards the emancipation of the rest of the black population in the US at the time. So they became very threatening. Right. And these caricatures were designed to take these people down many pegs by making fun of the ways in which they were distinguishing themselves through their fashion, through their comportment, through their education, and through their grooming. So these racist caricatures really exaggerate all of the black bodies. They exaggerate all of the fashion and really, again, are trying to, as abolitionists happening, are trying to, I think, visually re. Enslave. Right. People who were either newly emancipated or free for generations.
- [20:03]
April Callahan
Right. And something I think that's really important about your reading of these fashion plates or of these satirical fashion prints is that you're doing something we like to call reading against the grain, which is these contemporary sources have an intention, but you're reading against the grain of that intention to find the humanity and the fashionability of these subjects. Because that's what's so incredible, is you're actually seeing, if you read against it, you're seeing how these men and women are engaging with fashion during this period when something that wouldn't otherwise have been documented. So they're actually incredibly important for that reason.
- [20:39]
Monica L. Miller
Yeah. And there's even one. One of the prints talks about the new striped shirt, and it turns out that, quote, unquote, the new striped shirt was actually a fashion trend at that moment. The print is making fun of a black man for wearing this new striped shirt. But the striped shirt was a striped shirt. You actually have some moments or important moments in fashion history more generally by reading these. Reading these fashion plates, caricatures against the grain. You're right. Foreign.
- [21:14]
April Callahan
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- [21:42]
Monica L. Miller
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- [22:16]
April Callahan
The next section is hands down my favorite, which was a little unexpected for me, but it was the most illuminating. Again, so many things I learned so many things, but you really introduced me, and I'm sure I'm not alone, to this history that I was not even remotely aware of and should have been, but I wasn't. And also, if I'm not mistaken, this is definitely an addition to your original research. And this is the Champion section, which you've already mentioned and spoken to a bit which examines black dandyism within the context of sports and athletes. And this is a really well established and well known relationship today, but one that comes with a long and perhaps surprising history linked to the subjects that you already mentioned, which are 19th century black jockeys. I'm hoping you can just share a little bit more about this incredible history, which is really a commentary on the art and act of both getting dressed and making dress.
- [23:09]
Monica L. Miller
Yes. Yeah. And again, we were thinking this section came about because of our discovery of these jockey historic jockey silks from the 19th century. And we were able to. Able to bring those into the exhibition, which meant that we were able to tell this story about black jockeys in the 19th century. It turns out I didn't know this, so this is all recent research that horse racing was the most popular sport in the 19th century and black jockeys were the most successful jockeys at this time. By far. They won, I'm going to say the super majority of Kentucky Derby WINS in the 19th century, in addition to the Triple Crowns. Right. So there was a way that like black men in some ways owned this sport. Some of them, even if they were enslaved, they were called race riders at that time. They were the most successful jockeys in the sport. So they were pushed out of the sport by the end of the 19th century through racial discrimination. But. Right. There's evidence. Right. Of their prominence everywhere, including in these jockey silks. The jockey silks that we have in the show were made by enslaved labor, but may not have been worn by an enslaved jockey. They may not have been worn at all because they're in phenomenal condition, which means that they didn't see a lot of use. But what's amazing about these silk is that the jacket in particular is a green and red striped jacket. And if we look very closely at this jacket, you can see that the green stripes are sewn onto the red jacket with these Incredibly small and very delicate stitches, thousands of them. So these jockey silks were made by what was called at the time a plantation tailor, an enslaved person who was making a garment like this one, which is almost like couture level skill. Right. And plantation tailors made garments for everyone, everything from people who were laboring in the fields to the enslavers, to something like this particular garment. There's a really long and incredibly deeply skilled tradition of tailoring right, within black communities that survives up until the present moment. So these silks are amazing, and we're just so lucky to have them. But one thing we also noticed is that if you look in places, places like the Kentucky Derby Museum or other museums that are based around horse racing, there's often in those museums, these large format equestrian paintings that really feature horses, that feature the thoroughbreds, that are all named for the thoroughbreds. But if you look closely, not even closely at these paintings, they also include the black jockeys that were the trainers and breeders and jockeys and all of the sort of black people who worked around these horse racing establishments, whether they were plantations or later. But included in those paintings are also the clothing, right, that these jockeys wore. So we include in the exhibition not only the jockey silks, but also a representation of some of these jockeys whose names we know, who were some of the most successful black jockeys in the 19th century, who, as part of their success as athletes, when they were off the track, really wore the finest fashions of the day, once, after emancipation, became fashion icons, became internationally famous, were the most famous and first internationally famous athletes after they were pushed out of the sport in the US they moved to places like France and Russia and had illustrious careers elsewhere. So they were really important in terms of establishing the long history of the relationship between athletes and dandyism, and also the relationship of sports in some ways to capital.
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April Callahan
And again, this section just, to me represents all of these sections really do. But this section in particular just demonstrates it's the height of storytelling through fashion. It's exactly what you can do with taking garments and putting them in conversation with other objects to tell this incredibly rich narrative that is literally sewn in to these garments, like these jockey silks, that just looking at them, you might not have known. So it's just remarkable and just one of many examples throughout this exhibition of how you do that. And of course, in the next section, you do that as well, which is respectability. And the suit was, and remains to this day, an incredibly powerful visual signifier in Euro American culture. Intimately linked to notions of not just the wearers, gender and class, but also less quantifiable qualities like their integrity and respectability, and by extension, their value. And this is, of course, intimately connected to quote, unquote, race. And this suit's power was something well understood by prominent social reformers and activists who you've already discussed. Frederick Douglass, who was the most photographed man of the 19th century, and then W.E.B. du Bois, both featured in the exhibition section Respectability. How did these men use fashion, and most specifically the tailored suit in their fight for civil rights?
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Monica L. Miller
That's such an important question. And both Du Bois and Frederick Douglass actually allow us to tell, I think, a really nuanced story about dandyism, specifically about black dandyism, specifically in this section, right? Sometimes black dandyism is for an audience. So both somebody like Frederick Douglass and Du Bois knew that they had to wear a, say, bespoke and tailored suit in order to get a hearing, that they had to present respectably in order to be allowed into particular rooms where they could argue for black civil and human rights. We really think about Frederick Douglass in particular as having this incredible rhetorical power. But part of his rhetorical power, I think, had to do with how he presented to an audience. He was dignified. He was clearly proud, right? He carried himself in a way that kind of exuded dignity. So sometimes dandyism is for an audience, for an outside audience. Sometimes dandyism is also something that is done in sort of part of intra black community. If we think about the way that black people dress up to go to church on Sunday, that's about community. That is about honoring community, right? But sometimes dandyism is also just about the self. So we can think about the self in the mirror. And sometimes you dress up, right, or you intentionally dress in order to satisfy something really internal. And I think looking at somebody like Frederick Douglass, when we were able to find some of his clothing, right, at the Frederick Douglass house in Washington, D.C. and bring that into the exhibition, we see something like his tailcoat, right? His top hat, a monogrammed shirt, and then also a linen vest that he wore. And we can see in those garments the ways in which they were part of a kind of uniform for him. A uniform that, again, allowed him passage, allowed him to enter a lecture hall and be able to make the kind of arguments and debates that he needed to. But we also found a pair of sunglasses in his effects. So we also think there about, like, the question that raised for me. I was like, what is Frederick Douglass doing with sunglasses where is he wearing those sunglasses? He clearly had a sense of style that was, again, about his job, about his vocation, but also maybe a sense of style that was just about satisfying himself. Right. So I was really just so intrigued and so interested in the ways that Frederick Douglass himself may have used fashion in multiple and nuanced ways. Everything from, again, arguing for black, political, civil, human rights. And then also maybe a sense of the fact that he, quote, unquote, looked.
- [31:03]
April Callahan
Good, which is something, of course, embodied by another individual featured prominently throughout the exhibition, but also in this section, who is Andre Leontelli, who is omnipresent throughout the exhibit, all the dialogue surrounding it. Right. Can you talk a little bit about why he is here?
- [31:18]
Monica L. Miller
Yeah, Andre is here. He's in the exhibition in a couple of different ways. And I think that's also really beautiful that a single. I think we have four garments, accessories, related to Andre in the exhibition. And I think showing aspects of Andre in this exhibition is really also a way for us to again, think about these different aspects of dandyism. I think I mentioned garment of his in the distinction section. It's a military coat by John Galliano for Dior. Really deconstructs the military silhouette, but then puts it back together in a really loose, casual and sexy way. So there we have Andre as emperor. In the respectability section, we have one of his favorite suits, which is a suit that was made for him by Morty Silk on Madison Avenue. And this suit, it's a gray, like windowpane. Check. This suit for him, I think, was a real symbol of his arrival, of the idea that he could order a bespoke suit from a Madison Avenue tailor. And he's wearing it in this very famous photograph where he's walking down Madison and when he becomes director at Vogue, it's just a symbol of his arrival on a particular fashion scene, a symbol of his success, a symbol, in some ways, of his at that moment, of his ability to, in some ways, perform kind of conventional masculinity, which he messed with later on. But this is the moment when he was taking that seriously. A suit can be also a kind of armor. And I think, you know, in this respectability section, we were trying to talk about self respect. Right. But trying to also think about the suit and bespoke suiting as also related to protection, camouflage armor for black men across time.
- [33:09]
April Callahan
Yeah. And, of course, the same can be said for fashion in general. But the suit in particular, of course, has so many different connotations and representations throughout history. And something I Also really want to mention, just in regards to Andre and which I love too, it is not lost on many of us, I'm sure it's not lost on you. Many other fashion history minded folks is that of course, Andre got. Got his start working at the CI Costume Institute under Diane Vreeland, working on fashion exhibitions. That full circle moment too, I think is really extraordinary and worth noting as well.
- [33:42]
Monica L. Miller
Yeah, I mean, it feels really good, I think. I feel like there are a number of ancestors in the exhibition. One of them is Andre. Clearly, as somebody who, as you mentioned, is a part of the DNA of the CI, it felt really good to not just to have him in the show, but to have him multiply and to use even just his garments as a way to talk about the dynamism of dandyism. The other person, I think, who's well represented in the show is Jablo, who again is, as a fashion designer is just somebody who was asking so many questions. Right. Who was pushing so many boundaries, who is constantly, just, constantly trying to just provoke. Right. So there's many, many important pieces by Virgil in the show that really bring this idea of dandyism and its potential functions, late 20th and early 21st century.
- [34:36]
April Callahan
Right.
- [34:36]
Monica L. Miller
Really to the fore.
- [34:37]
April Callahan
Yeah. And maybe we'll talk about this a little bit later on. We can certainly talk about it here too. But something we didn't talk about earlier was this idea. And I think Andrew Bolton writes about it in the exhibition catalog about Virgil idea of the black imaginary. And so that being really important to this conversation you're having here, which is between the past, present and future of black dandyism.
- [35:00]
Monica L. Miller
And it's sort of, you know, the idea that Virgil also defined dandyism in his show notes as something that was uninterruptedly sublime. Right. So there's this also, I think, in relationship to some of his garments. But also one of the things I think we tried to import into the show was this feeling of. Of transcendence. And the exhibition architecture is also always asking you to look up. Right. So that there's a way in which you're always looking up to different iterations of black dandyism, however they're appearing. So that you have this way in which the exhibition wants you to understand or is hoping and suggesting a kind of reverence.
- [35:41]
April Callahan
And something that is certainly related to uninterrupted sublime is uninhabited joy, which is the subject of the next exhibition section, which is juke, which is both a noun and a verb, and something that was, quote, an integral Facet of black American expressive culture during the Harlem Renaissance. What is a juke and how does it relate to the dress body?
- [36:02]
Monica L. Miller
Juke is related to the juke joint, which we can thank Ryan Coogler now in Sinners for giving us a really good visual and. And musical experience of what the juke joint is about. So juke joints are, I guess, primarily, or began right as clubs in the rural south where the blues was born. So they're like raucous music halls where people would dance and play music on the weekends. So that's what the juke joint is very much related to. Entertainment, to nightlife, to, again, certain forms of joyful embodiment. So that section juke is really designed to. Yeah. To celebrate that. And we're focusing in that section on the tuxedo and the zoot suit.
- [36:43]
April Callahan
And I've always thought about movement and the 1920s in relationship to the woman's body, Because I am a fashion story of women's clothing. But something I never thought about, but obviously it makes perfect sense, once you mentioned it, is that the zoot suit develops out of relationship to dancing in the 1920s. And the need to move. Move, Which I think is. It's so important to the history of that.
- [37:07]
Monica L. Miller
Yeah. So the zoot suit is developed a little bit later in the 30s, late 30s, because it's really a garment that is designed for dancing at the Savoy Ballroom in places like that. It's the long jacket of a zoot suit, in contradistinction to the ballooning trouser, is really meant to. Like, when you get a spin going, you're supposed to be able to see the sort of magnificence of that particular movement. Also the relationship between the shoulders, which are really exaggerated in a zoot suit, and the cinched waist. Right. Is also something that, again, is. As somebody spins and moves, dancing. That's part of what the suit is designed to enhance.
- [37:48]
April Callahan
Yeah. And then something else I loved about this section too, is this is one of the few places where you explore women in dandyism. And so there's Gladys Bentley and Josephine Baker homages here, which we haven't talked too much about the Met Gala, but several people paid homage to Gladys Bentley specifically and her kind of gender bending performances of this era. Can you speak just a little bit about Gladys and who she was and why she's significant? She's such a fascinating and important figure.
- [38:16]
Monica L. Miller
Gladys Bentley was a blues musician in the 1920s and 30s who was really well known for her wearing of a white. I think it was silk. I hope it was silk tuxedo and top hat and cane. And Gladys was somebody who again, if dandies push boundaries, right? Gladys was pushing a number of boundaries here in terms of gender and sexuality. She was queer and really thinking about like how to if we think about the Harlem Renaissance as the quote unquote new Negro era, right? She's really thinking about different versions of black otherwise ness that are coming out of out of modernity. So Gladys is really important in terms of the ways that she not only self styled but she was a total package in terms of her own self presentation plus what she was singing in the music. Right. Those two things together were incredibly provocative, like she was just offering alternative ways of being.
- [39:11]
April Callahan
She's such a fantastic person and deserves a whole episode on her own. Perhaps we'll get there someday. Dress Listers.
- [39:23]
Cassidy Zachary
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Monica L. Miller
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Cassidy Zachary
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Monica L. Miller
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April Callahan
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Monica L. Miller
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- [39:54]
April Callahan
Hey there travelers.
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Monica L. Miller
Kaley Cuoco here.
- [39:56]
April Callahan
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Monica L. Miller
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April Callahan
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Monica L. Miller
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April Callahan
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Monica L. Miller
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- [40:15]
April Callahan
And up to 50% off flights. So don't just dream about that trip.
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Monica L. Miller
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April Callahan
Go to your happy price.
- [40:20]
Monica L. Miller
Priceline.
- [40:25]
April Callahan
We're going to move into our next section, which is Heritage and Black Dandyism really exists in conversation with Euro American fashion, but it is not solely defined by it. And in the Heritage section you write that quote on the African continent and in the diaspora. Black Dandyism has a long history of hybridizing Western tailoring and traditional forms of African dress. Why was this something that you wanted to highlight in this section?
- [40:52]
Monica L. Miller
We talked a little bit earlier about the ways that the exhibition architecture allows you to look backwards and forwards across time and space. So the Heritage section really allows us to in some ways go back to the beginning of Black Dandyism. In that moment when we talked about contact and different traditions and hierarchies of dress and adornment between the west and Africa. One of the things that we have, particularly in the catalog and also in the exhibition, is some early photography, right, from 19th century West Africa and Angola that shows a number of subjects wearing some combination, right. Of African and Western dress. Sometimes a Western suit draped with an African textile, and sometimes somebody wearing something the opposite of that. So there's ways in which dandyism as a mode of distinction. Right. And also as a mode of dress that can tell you something about somebody's identity, often brings those two things together when the dandy is black. So it was really important for us to include this section because it really was allowing us to dig a little bit deeper into or to actually give a kind of sequel, right. To some of the ideas that we bring up at the very beginning of the exhibition.
- [42:06]
April Callahan
And you write in the exhibition catalog, quote, african regality can be claimed even by people separated from the continent by hundreds of years.
- [42:15]
Monica L. Miller
Yes, absolutely. And that's, I think, incredibly well illustrated by another Andre Leon Talley garment. We have one of his caftans that was designed by the Nigerian designer Patience Torloway in the exhibition, where it's just. It's like a magnificent piece. And because it was made for Andre, who was a very tall person, it just has this incredible presence. Also, again, if we go back to the suit, we do think about the suit as this very particular garment that has a certain amount of authority, masculine authority and command associated with it. We have Andre's favorite suit in the exhibition, and then also one of his caftans. If we look at the two of them together, we're still seeing they're in some ways, mirror each other a little bit. Right. And that the caftan is a regal and authoritative garment in one way that the suit. Right. Does in another way.
- [43:11]
April Callahan
And actually that segues perfectly into our next sections because this challenging of the suit as this end all be all of black dandied expressions comes in the next two sections, which are Beauty and Cool. Both center around the menswear fashion revolution of the 60s to the 1980s. And this is a period that celebrated, quote, beautiful black men as well as witnessed the extinction of the tailored suit as the end all be all of identified self expression. So can you talk more about what and who made this era so groundbreaking.
- [43:45]
Monica L. Miller
These two sections are. They're great to talk about together because it's like between the 60s and the 80s, there's a real revolution in fashion writ large that I think is really related to the prominence and popularity of black musicians. If we think about jazz musicians in the 1960s, hip hop musicians in the 1980s, as well as people like, you know, funk and disco, if we think about Sylvester, who's also featured in the beauty section, there's a way in which which dress becomes more casual and some aspects of traditionally men's dress start to take on, right. Aspects of traditional or typical female dress. Lace, sequins, ruffles, bold color. So these two sections really speak to each other in terms of thinking about both, as you were saying, the sort of abandonment of the traditional suit, but maybe its transformation right into tracksuit or the double denim and how that happens around the same time or simultaneously with this addition or embellishment of men's dress with these other elements of feminine dress. If we think about, say for example, earth, wind and fire, if we look at a photograph of earth, wind and fire from the mid-70s, every single thing, it's leather, it's lace, it's, it's high heels, it's sequins, it's shine. There's just so much going on in terms of the way that that dress is being revolutionized and the suit is being modified. And there's again, questions about gender and sexuality involved in all of that. Right. Even even in the case of, say, for example, some of the iconic garments that we think about from the hip hop era, there's a lot going on there in terms of the relationship between traditional dress and streetwear. So, yeah, it's a really fascinating moment in the history of fashion in general, but then also how it relates to and modifies how we think about potentially.
- [45:41]
April Callahan
Black dandians soon and just alone, just speaking about unbridled joy and dressing without restraints and what that brings to fashion and what an exciting period for menswear and womenswear too, right? In terms of challenging what came before and breaking down all of these barriers, especially around gender and gendered clothing, because for such a long time, and our listeners are pretty familiar with this story, but this idea that fashion expression could only be something that women played with and women enjoy, that went away just as the dandy was emerging at the dawn of the 19th century. So to see it come back, to see men wear high heels and a bright orange three piece suit.
- [46:24]
Monica L. Miller
Exactly. No, I really love what you said there about dressing without restraint. And I feel like that's what I love to see. And that for me is the kind of joyful and truly self expressive moment of black dandyism, is this feeling of A lack of restraint, freedom in your body.
- [46:43]
April Callahan
Yeah. So where Du Bois is wearing a suit to emit his respectability and his value, people starting in the 1960s are really saying that I'm not fitting into your narrative of what I should be and who I should be. And you write about how it's really important that the shedding of the suit is, quote, an important element of decolonization and a symbol of independence because you're no longer defining yourself within this societal notion of who and what you should be and how you should dress.
- [47:09]
Monica L. Miller
Exactly. And I think it's that independence, what you just noticed is independence, a kind of understanding of the rules. And then sometimes you play by the rules and sometimes you knowingly flout them.
- [47:21]
April Callahan
Exactly, exactly. So we've reached the final section in the exhibition. You've been so generous with your time. The final section in the exhibition is Cosmopolitanism, which feels less like a conclusion to me than it does as an invitation to really continue to explore the present and future possibilities of Black dandyism that knows no bounds. And we briefly talked about Virgil's idea of the black imaginary. Right. And the possibility of Black dandyism. And this section focuses on, quote, the crossing of borders, literally, figuratively, and imaginatively. So what do you hope people take away from this section, but also this exhibition as a whole?
- [48:02]
Monica L. Miller
I think specifically for this section, we really want people to think about travel, migration, movement, and this sort of dynamism that I've been talking about. Sometimes people of African descent have been forced. They've been the subject of forced migration. And sometimes people have really chosen to move around and to experience different things and different cultures. And I think that this last section about cosmopolitanism is really thinking about how travel, migration and movement have separated people of African descent, but also how it's, in some ways, has brought them back together and created this sort of what Paul Gilwright describes as a kind of Black Atlantic discourse, a kind of cosmopolitanism based around the Atlantic Basin. And there's one piece in this section that is a garment made by Labrum London that is made from. It's a really conceptual piece. It's the one, maybe most conceptual piece in the entire exhibition. It's made out of boarding passes, printed boarding passes. It's hard to describe. I'm not doing a good job of it on this podcast. And again, it's asking that question about suiting. Right. Because it's not a traditional suit. It also really reminds me of. And I've just been reminded that of something that's going on in the museum today. It also reminds me of a more traditional, almost like danced African piece, and that it's manifesting, Right. The movements of people in and around the African diaspora, really, in some ways, I feel like would be beautiful if that garment were danced. So there's something, again, about this ending of the exhibition that's really hearkening back to Alaudo Equiano's quotation, right. What it means to dance in superfine at your freedom. What it means to have that moment of. Of joy that is also tethered potentially to something that's maybe not necessarily so joyous. Right. One of the things that we really think about in the exhibition that comes from something actually that Jonathan Michael Square said is that the exhibition really contains the rhythm and the blues. So this last moment of the exhibition about cosmopolitanism, forced and chosen travel, movement, dynamism, in terms of what I think, I hope people take away from the exhibition is. Is I hope that we've provided a lot of different ways for people to enter the exhibition, metaphorically, meaning that I think for some people who go to the exhibition, they will see something familiar, a tool, strategy, tactic that they may have used themselves when getting dressed or thinking about the power, right, of fashion and dress as. As this mode of self expression and self fashioning. I also hope that some people will see something maybe even not just familiar, but familial. Right. Something that comes out of their own specific history. For example, I think so many people respond to that respectability section thinking about their fathers, grandfathers, uncles, or for me in particular, I think about my great uncle Tommy when I'm in the juke section. He was a jazz musician who always just. He was just so incredibly. He wore these, like, light blue suits that were phenomenal that matched his car. Right. He was not only doing an ensemble, but with the car. So there's a way in which, you know, I'm hoping people see those strategies come to life and can appreciate them, learn new things, but also appreciate the things that they actually already knew but didn't know how to name or see. That's what I'm hoping for.
- [51:30]
April Callahan
I can't speak for anyone else but myself, but I learned so much. I was incredibly moved by this exhibition and by this conversation. So thank you so much for being here and for this incredibly important, beautiful and moving exhibition.
- [51:44]
Monica L. Miller
Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be back.
- [51:46]
April Callahan
Yes. And hopefully it won't be another seven years till we speak again.
- [51:50]
Monica L. Miller
I hope so, too.
- [51:52]
Cassidy Zachary
Monica, thank you so much for joining us all. This week to discuss this incredible exhibition Super Fine Tailoring Black Style which has already gone gotten so much buzz that it has been extended until October 26th. So we all have plenty of time to get there.
- [52:07]
April Callahan
Yes, and I am certainly already planning a trip there in the fall because I have to see this exhibit. But not to worry dress listeners if you cannot make it in person because in our show notes we are going to provide a link for you to be able to watch a video of Monica giving a curator led tour of the exhibit. And we will also provide a link to purchase the exhibition catalog blog which I highly recommend getting your hands on for a multitude of reasons, not least of which is the fact that you are going to see and read more than one familiar name. This book is comprised of the work of well known luminaries, creators and connoisseurs across the world of art, fashion, design and scholarship. And you are also going to find more than one past Dress guest, including vintage style activist Dandy Wellington, who is one of the stars of Tyler Mitchell's multi page photo spread and quote unquote love letter to Black Dandyism that opens the catalog.
- [52:58]
Cassidy Zachary
Yes, and Dandy Wellington also contributed an essay on the Zoot Suit to the catalog, just one of 30 distinguished voices from the field of fashion studies who contributed essays and like Cass mentioned, other contributors whose names you will recognize from Dressed would be Jonathan Michael Square, Christine Chechenska, Jason Cyrus, Elizabeth Way, Tanisha Ford and Kimberly Jenkins, who have all been past Dressed guests. And of course they are further sharing their important work on transforming and expanding the narrative of fashion history, just as Monica has done with this exhibition.
- [53:32]
April Callahan
And one thing I meant to ask Monica but did not was what's next? Because as important as this exhibition is now, I keep thinking about all the ways that it is opening doors for future research, not just for herself, but for others as well. So this is not the first time, nor will it be the last time we will hear from Monica, I am sure.
- [53:51]
Cassidy Zachary
Nor does the last time you will be hearing about Dandies from us, Undressed. Because next week we are going to continue our deep dive exploration into the history and significance of Dandyism with a two part episode on one of the most famous Dandies of all time, Beau Brummel. So that does it for us today dress listeners. Be sure and follow along on social media this week where you can find all of the fabulous content associated with these two episodes at the hashtags dressed546 and dressed547. Until next week, may you consider the past, present and future of Black Dandyism. Next time you get dressed, please head to restpodcast on Instagram or Rest Podcast without the underscore on Facebook to check out the visual content associated with each week's episodes.
- [54:43]
April Callahan
And remember, we always love hearing from you, so if you'd like to write to us, you can do so@hellorusthistory.com DressedHistory.com is also our website where you can sign up for our monthly newsletter, our in person tours and online fashion history courses and you can check out whatever else we have up our finely tailored sleeves.
- [55:01]
Cassidy Zachary
We get so many questions from you all about our recommendations for fashion history books, so if you are interested you can always find the find a link in our show Notes to our Bookshop Bookshelf. So that address is bookshop.org shop forward/dress and there you can find over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles.
- [55:22]
April Callahan
And do you love Dressed but want to skip the ads? You can now sign up for Ad Free Listening with any tier on our Dressed History Patreon where you can also chat with your fellow fashion history lovers and attend one of our of our live Q&As and so much more.
- [55:36]
Cassidy Zachary
We are also excited to now be part of the Airwave Network and their premium ad free history subscription Airwave History plus available on Apple Podcasts. The subscription brings dressed and also 27 other popular history podcasts ad free for just $5.99 per month. More information on Patreon and Airwave is available at the link in our bio.
- [56:00]
April Callahan
Thank you as always for tuning in and more Dressed coming your way very soon. The History of Fashion is a production of dressed media. The 250th anniversary of the American Revolution is here, but do you really know the full story?
- [56:18]
Monica L. Miller
I'm Liz Kobart, historian and host of Ben Franklin's World, the podcast that takes you beyond the myths and into the.
- [56:24]
April Callahan
Real histories of early America.
- [56:26]
Monica L. Miller
From before Christopher Columbus to the early.
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April Callahan
Days of the United States.
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Monica L. Miller
As we commemorate 250 years since the American Revolution, now is the perfect time.
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April Callahan
To dive into the people, places and ideas that have shaped our world.
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Monica L. Miller
Tune into Ben Franklin's World and experience early American history like never before. Follow Ben Franklin's world wherever you get your podcasts. Hey JJ Virgin here on my podcast well beyond 40, we ditched the idea of a aging gracefully and go all in on aging powerfully. Every week I host powerful experts who can give you powerful insights on building muscle, boosting your energy and feeling amazing. No matter what your age. This is your one life. And trust me, being smarter and stronger are superpowers that can turn lifespan into strength span. Listen to well beyond 40 wherever you get your podcasts.