Stylin' Out: The Dandy Within

The Met Gala — fashion’s biggest night out — is officially just around the corner, and we’re rolling out the black carpet to bring it to Nia Centre on Saturday, May 10th. This year’s Met theme, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” takes inspiration from the Black Dandy, as explored in Monica L. Miller’s book, “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity.” And we’ll be putting our own spin on the theme with Stylin’ Out, bringing together fashion designers, stylists, tailors, writers, models, hairstylists, fashion photographers, and lovers of all things bold and beautiful to join us for an evening where we celebrate Black high style.

Stylin’ Out will begin with a lively conversation between fashion designers Mic. Carter and David Zala, who are both reimagining the Dandy in a modern context. They’ll be discussing their respective creative journeys and processes, how they relate to the Dandy as a movement and mode of social critique, and so much more. We’ll also have on display a fashion presentation featuring garments selected from these visionary designers’ archives. The evening will conclude with a mixer, where you’ll have a chance to mingle with local Black fashion professionals.

Evening Overview:

6:30PM: Doors Open

7PM: David Zala and Mic Carter, In Conversation

8PM: Fashion Presentation & Open Gathering

Dress Code:

This event is inspired by this year’s Met Gala theme: Superfine: Tailoring Black Style. So we’re curating a space full of oohs and aahs. Come dressed in your boldest, sharpest, most Dandy-inspired fit. Show us your take on the theme and come ready to be seen.

What is a Black Dandy?

“Historically, the term Dandy was used to describe someone—often a man—who is extremely devoted to aesthetics and approached it as a lifestyle. […] Dandyism gave Black men and women an opportunity to use clothing, gesture, irony and wit to transform their identities, and imagine new ways of embodying political and social possibilities.“ — Monica L. Miller, Slaves to Fashion

The Black Dandy is all about freedom, dissonance, and theatricality. Think about how Black people are known for stylin’ out and dressing to the nines, “when the occasion calls for it and, more tellingly, often when it does not” (Monica L. Miller). It’s wearing your Sunday Best fit to church on Easter Weekend. It’s how pro athletes make that short walk from the parking lot to the fitting room into a high fashion runway. It’s caring for your waves and accessorizing your locs. It’s the meticulousness involved in selecting the perfect cufflink, or hat, or grill, or sock. It’s an innate understanding of how dress can be used to define and signal our complexities as Black people, in a world intent on using stereotypes and oversimplifications to reduce us.

It’s a movement, a mode of critique, a style of dress, and a spirit. It’s André Leon Talley and Janelle Monae. It’s Colman Domingo and Dapper Dan. It’s Tyler, the Creator and Pharrell Williams. Maybe it’s your uncle or your father. Maybe, it’s in you.

About the Designers

Mic. Carter is a Toronto-based designer whose work interrogates the intersections of fashion, futurity, social justice, and community. Informed by the histories of racialized labor and resistance embedded in fashion’s global supply chain, their practice engages clothing as both a site of constraint and liberation. Through experimental design and stylization, Carter explores how garments can embolden those navigating the slippages of cis-heteronormativity and femme-phobia, grounding their approach in ethnographic embodiment and speculative aesthetics. L’Uomo Strano emerges from this inquiry—a brand committed to crafting responsive beauty for the femme-identified and gender-expansive wardrobe while challenging the historical erasure of Black and queer bodies in the fashion lexicon.

DAVID ZALA started in January 2016 when David Ezomoh, creative director of DAVID ZALA / ZALAHARI migrated from Nigeria to Canada to study Applied Fashion at Seneca College. Having just $100 of funds in his wallet when he arrived at Pearson, David took every available morning and night shift to raise enough for his tuition and living expenses, while offering alterations and tailoring services during off-school hours and summer holidays. David graduated in April 2019, winning the Best Technical Student Award and first price at the Catwalk Creative Competition in December 2018. At DAVID ZALA, the focus is always about the craft. Everything the brand produces comes from their own hands, or from local artisans.