“It was fascinating to see how fashion has been used not only as a form of self-expression, but also as a way of resistance and protest. The exhibit showed how Black people have celebrated themselves and made powerful statements through style and presentation.” –Favor Brunner ’27

On Tuesday, October 14, Upper School students in History faculty Joshua Perez’s Slavery and Resistance course spent the afternoon touring The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s acclaimed Superfine: Tailoring Black Style exhibition. Curated by Monica Miller, author and chair and professor of Africana Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University, the exhibition makes the pages of Miller’s groundbreaking book, Slaves to Fashion, which presents the cultural histories of Black dandyism, come alive. “I want students to explore and expand their understanding of resistance,” said Perez, “treating it as multifaceted, dimensional, and existing on a spectrum.” He asked students to consider how “one’s expression and style [can] serve as a form of resistance.”

The first exhibition in over two decades devoted to menswear, Superfine “explores the importance of style in the formation of Black identities across the Atlantic diaspora, particularly in the United States and Europe.” Set within a dark suite of interconnected rooms, where low, meticulously placed lighting transports visitors through poignant periods of history and geography, the exhibition moves seamlessly from the eighteenth century to the present day.

As students traversed the exhibit’s garments and accessories, paintings, photographs, decorative arts, and more, they observed how Black dandyism, as both an aesthetic practice and a strategy of self-presentation (one of distinction and resistance!), opened new avenues for social and political possibility.

Grade 11 student Favor Brunner ’27 shared that the visit to the exhibition helped him see the powerful role creativity plays in various forms of resistance. “Our trip to the Met Gala exhibition was such an inspiring and eye-opening visit! The energy of the presentation, the creativity of the clothes, and the overall atmosphere really resonated with how I express myself through fashion. One of the things that stood out to me most was learning about dandyism and how it connects to Black expression and identity.

It was fascinating to see how fashion has been used not only as a form of self-expression, but also as a way of resistance and protest. The exhibit showed how Black people have celebrated themselves and made powerful statements through style and presentation. After the exhibition, we went out for food and had great conversations reflecting on everything we saw. I’m really grateful for this experience—it helped me understand fashion and culture in a deeper way, and it gave me a lot to think about in terms of how creativity can be a form of activism.”

“How can one’s expression and style serve as a form of resistance? What oppressive forces do style and expression push back against? At what point can we define this resistance? Is it found in the production of the materials used for clothing, in the intellectual and creative work behind it, in the expression and style itself, or in what fashion and style embody? Additionally, how does the identity of the wearer and their choices in self-expression contribute to this concept of resistance?”

—Joshua Perez

Six weeks into the fall semester, Perez encourages students to expand their thinking and consider the many ways in which Black people have resisted throughout history. What actions constitute resistance, and how, in naming the oppressive forces, can students deepen their understanding of the shared humanity and interconnectedness of resistance movements across the Black diaspora. As one student observed while walking through the exhibition, Black dandyism is not merely a fashion of resistance but is [a form of] resistance itself.

Perez’s history course anchors theories and examples of enslaved resistance against the oppression and dehumanization of enslavement within America’s founding and leading up to the Civil War. Together, the class explores the social, political, cultural, labor, and gender history of Africans and African Americans to center important questions of Black resistance as a central theme within American- and African-American history.

Watch video for more information about The Met’s Superfine, open until October 26.