The departure of Kim Jones from Fendi would mark the end of a pivotal chapter in the luxury house’s history. Since joining Fendi in 2020 as artistic director for womenswear and couture, Jones has brought a fresh, modern sensibility to the brand while maintaining its heritage of Italian craftsmanship. His tenure has been defined by a series of critically acclaimed collections that bridged the worlds of art, literature, and fashion, often with collaborations that resonated with both old and new audiences. Should Jones leave, the fashion world would be left speculating about the future direction of Fendi and the designer’s next move, given his continued role at Dior Men’s.
The upcoming Moncler Genius event in Shanghai is set to be one of the most highly anticipated fashion spectacles of the season. Building on the success of the collaborative Moncler Genius concept, which fuses the brand’s iconic outerwear with the vision of multiple designers, this event promises to push boundaries even further. Shanghai, as a burgeoning fashion capital, offers the perfect backdrop for Moncler’s cutting-edge aesthetics and innovative collaborations. The show will likely feature an eclectic mix of designs, combining luxury, streetwear, and avant-garde influences, cementing Moncler’s position as a forward-thinking brand in the global fashion landscape.
Contemporary Black dandyism has been enlivening the red carpet at the Met Gala for years. Think of Billy Porter in his Sun God ensemble by The Blonds for the “Camp” exhibition of 2019, A$AP Rocky with a patchworked memory quilt by ERL thrown over his silk taffeta tuxedo at 2021’s “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion” show, or Lil Nas X in crystal encrusted Luar at “Sleeping Beauties” last year.
Announced today, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” the upcoming Costume Institute show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, will take the Black dandy as its subject, examining the importance of clothing and style to the formation of Black identities in the Atlantic diaspora.
It’s the first Costume Institute exhibition since 2003’s “Men in Skirts” to focus exclusively on menswear, as well as the first since Andrew Bolton became Curator in Charge to involve a guest curator. Monica Miller, Professor and Chair of Africana Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University, will examine the figure of the Black dandy from its earliest depictions in 18th century art to modern-day representations from the runways and film. The show is inspired by her 2009 book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, in which she establishes Black dandyism as both an aesthetic and political construct.
Dandyism, for the unacquainted, is an exuberant attention to dress. In advance of this morning’s announcement, Miller said another definition is “dressing wisely and well.” She described Black dandyism as “a strategy and a tool to rethink identity, to reimagine the self in a different context. To really push a boundary—especially during the time of enslavement, to really push a boundary on who and what counts as human, even.” The history of Black dandyism that the exhibition showcases will “illustrate how Black people transformed from being enslaved and stylized as luxury items, acquired like any other signifier of wealth and status, to autonomous self-fashioning individuals who are global trendsetters.” If, as Miller has argued, the Black dandy originates in the space between hyper-visibility (on the red carpet, say) and invisibility (in establishment institutions like The Met), this show is poised to address that.
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