Superfine at the Met

I am old enough to remember the ruckus created by the exhibition Harlem on my Mind at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1969. A huge controversy erupted in Harlem, as well as in communities throughout the City of New York. The outcry was explosive, based largely on the fact that there were no living Black artists featured in the exhibit. Remembering the Harlem exhibition, The Met has created a fabulous reason after 50 years to celebrate Black couture designers in a smashing new gallery, opened several weeks ago at the Met Gala.

I was pleased, during my recent visit to the Met, to see the new exhibit on view through October 26 called Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, which depicts Black styles from the 18th century through the present in an historical perspective. Some attribute the genesis of the show to now-deceased former Westchester resident and Vogue creative director Andre Leon Talley, who was also a featured lecturer at the Katonah Museum of Art’s Betty Himmel Lecture Series.

The exhibition focuses on dandyism which, according to the Met, is “an aesthetic and a strategy that allowed for new social and political possibilities.” Many important Black designers are featured. While some may quibble with the concept of the show itself as a form of racial identity, others will find it creative and original. I did get to see what guests at the Met Gala saw, which was a brand- new gallery. It was stunning — the gallery, the architecture and the content: Black designers at their best — an historical presentation of clothing from one of the museum’s most creative departments, the Costume Institute. In their usual superb style, there are original designs by Grace Wales Bonner, Ozwald Boateng, Willy Chavarria, Telfar Clemens, Dapper Dan, Jeffrey Banks, Luar, Fear of God, Balmain, Off-White, Louis Vuitton, Jacques Agbobly, Bianca Saunders, Jawara Alleyne, and Ervin Latimer, as well as books, postcards and paintings.

I would say “It’s worth a trip from Westchester.”