Tonight the steps of New York’s largest museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met), will transform into the year’s most extravagant red carpet. The Met Gala, also known as “fashion’s biggest night”, is a star-studded charity benefit that raises funds for the museum’s Costume Institute and opens its annual exhibition. For the first time in more than 20 years, the focus is on menswear.

Superfine: Tailoring Black Style traces the cultural history of black dandyism within identities of the Atlantic diaspora, particularly in Europe and the US. The dandy, so obsessed with style that it becomes a raison d’être, first appeared in eighteenth-century London through the likes of Beau Brummell and his cohort. The style was imposed on black servants and later embraced as a tool of both self-expression and social commentary.

“Fashion and dress have been used in a contest of power and aesthetics for black people from the time of enslavement to the present,” says guest curator Monica L Miller. Her 2009 book, Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, inspired the exhibition.

During the Harlem Renaissance, jazz musicians wore tailored suits in lush materials with polished shoes and sharp accessories to break racist stereotypes and exemplify their humanity and dignity. Voluminous zoot suits soon followed; think long jackets, wide lapels and oversized pants tapered at the ankle.

“What we see when more African American people are creating representations of their own culture is a sense of coolness, assuredness, beauty, calm, reflection and inner life,” said scholar Bridget R Cooks on a 2024 Met podcast about the Harlem Renaissance.

That same sense of coolness could be seen in the 1980s, when Dapper Dan remixed luxury logos into streetwear, bringing European heritage brands to the hip-hop scene. The Met exhibition includes such examples of historical dress alongside prints, drawings, paintings and photographs. It also spotlights contemporary fashion by talented black designers working today.

An indigo crushed-velvet ensemble with intricate shell trim from Grace Wales Bonner and a slim-tailored, checked suit by Pharrell Williams for Louis Vuitton illustrate how dandy style continues to evolve. They’re part of a recent revitalization in men’s fashion – fueled by forward-thinking designers as well as global celebrities willing to take more risks – that prompted the Costume Institute’s curator in charge, Andrew Bolton, to explore menswear for the first time since 2003.

The show isn’t just an acknowledgement of the black dandy as an overlooked cultural icon but also a chance for the institute to expand its menswear holdings and invest in a more diverse range of designers.

“Superfine reflects our ongoing commitment to the fundamental principles of diversity and inclusion in a way that is genuine and authentic to the department,” said Bolton in the exhibition’s catalog, which features images of modern-day dandies shot by photographer Tyler Mitchell.

It’s a bold statement at a time when DEI is under fire in the US. In January, the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian Institution shuttered their diversity offices, and just last Friday, the National Endowment for the Arts began cancelling grants – many of which supported works by artists of colour – after Trump proposed eliminating the agency from his next budget. For cultural institutions that rely on federal dollars, championing diversity can now mean serious financial repercussions.

While the Met accepts some federal funding, most of its budget comes from its endowment, private donations and the City of New York – insulating the museum from White House pressure.In that respect, Superfine couldn’t be timelier. Just as the black dandy has long used fashion to fight oppression, perhaps by highlighting this figure tonight the Met is doing the same thing.