The Bold Intersection of Fashion and Identity in Black Intellectualism

The upcoming exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, titled “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” aims to explore the intricate relationship between fashion and Black identity. This exhibition will showcase how Black intellectuals and artists have historically utilized fashion as a means of self-expression and identity reclamation, transcending societal norms and expectations.

Artist and author Zora Neale Hurston, a key player of the Harlem Renaissance, embodied this philosophy. Having been born in the segregated South and educated in the integrated North, she straddled both worlds while never truly being accepted by either. Hurston’s unique perspective on fashion emerged in her 1934 essay “Characteristics of Negro Expression,” where she articulated her belief that personal style was an essential part of self-expression. The author famously stated,

“When I set my hat at a certain angle and saunter down Seventh Avenue, Harlem City, feeling as snooty as the lions in front of the Forty-Second Street Library…Peggy Hopkins Joyce on the Boule Mich with her gorgeous raiment, stately carriage, knees knocking together in a most aristocratic manner, has nothing on me. The cosmic Zora emerges. I belong to no race nor time. I am the eternal feminine with its string of beads.” – Zora Neale Hurston

James Baldwin dressed to impress, but his impact extends beyond literature into the world of fashion. Known for his distinctive style, Baldwin often donned sunglasses, lace blouses, and four-inch heels, creating a visual signature that expressed his individuality. By the 1960s, he had adopted alternate hourglass shapes. These multilayered designs rejected the strict uniforms associated with the armed militant movements and the trippy exuberance that oversaturated the culture of the day. For Baldwin, Paris was a place where he was able to remove the burden of social expectation and explore freedom through fashion and personal style.

The Harlem Renaissance profoundly influenced the way Black intellectuals and artists approached fashion, instilling a sense of pride in distinctive styles characterized by bold designs and fine fabrics. A leading intellectual of the movement, W.E.B. Du Bois, first described the idea of double consciousness. He developed this line of thinking in his seminal 1903 book, “The Souls of Black Folk.” Du Bois’ style fiercely demonstrated his resistance to racial caricature. With gloves on hands, neatly trimmed beard, and walking sticks in hand, his personal attire conveyed a more positive version of his insurgent spirit.

Designer Grace Wales Bonner has extended this lineage of fashion as resistance in her collections. She excavates cultural histories and crafts bold visual statements that challenge norms and redefine Black identity. Her work is a foundational piece of a larger movement. Today, designers such as Virgil Abloh are following a similar path, using the medium of fashion to disrupt and transform how society sees Black people.

Fashion proved to be the perfect medium for élite André Leon Talley’s celebration of the power of sartorial self-expression. His rainbow pride capes and poetic velvet creations turned fabric into highly influential forms of self expression. With each of these garments, he further cemented fashion’s place as a crucial expression of identity within the Black community. Iké Udé’s self-portraits resist the essentialist narratives we often see surrounding Black elegance. More than anything, they powerfully depict how visual representation can empower, reclaim, and redefine identity.