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Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity
Slaves to Fashion is a pioneering cultural history of the black dandy, from his emergence in Enlightenment England to his contemporary incarnations in the cosmopolitan art worlds of London and New York. It is populated by sartorial impresarios such as Julius Soubise, a freed slave who sometimes wore diamond-buckled, red-heeled shoes as he circulated through the social scene of eighteenth-century London, and Yinka Shonibare, a prominent Afro-British artist who not only styles himself as a fop but also creates ironic commentaries on black dandyism in his work. Interpreting performances and representations of black dandyism in particular cultural settings and literary and visual texts, Monica L. Miller emphasizes the importance of sartorial style to black identity formation in the Atlantic diaspora.
Dandyism was initially imposed on black men in eighteenth-century England, as the Atlantic slave trade and an emerging culture of conspicuous consumption generated a vogue in dandified black servants. “Luxury slaves” tweaked and reworked their uniforms, and were soon known for their sartorial novelty and sometimes flamboyant personalities. Tracing the history of the black dandy forward to contemporary celebrity incarnations such as Andre 3000 and Sean Combs, Miller explains how black people became arbiters of style and how they have historically used the dandy’s signature tools—clothing, gesture, and wit—to break down limiting identity markers and propose new ways of fashioning political and social possibility in the black Atlantic world. With an aplomb worthy of her iconographic subject, she considers the black dandy in relation to nineteenth-century American literature and drama, W. E. B. Du Bois’s reflections on black masculinity and cultural nationalism, the modernist aesthetics of the Harlem Renaissance, and representations of black cosmopolitanism in contemporary visual art.
Dandyism was initially imposed on black men in eighteenth-century England, as the Atlantic slave trade and an emerging culture of conspicuous consumption generated a vogue in dandified black servants. “Luxury slaves” tweaked and reworked their uniforms, and were soon known for their sartorial novelty and sometimes flamboyant personalities. Tracing the history of the black dandy forward to contemporary celebrity incarnations such as Andre 3000 and Sean Combs, Miller explains how black people became arbiters of style and how they have historically used the dandy’s signature tools—clothing, gesture, and wit—to break down limiting identity markers and propose new ways of fashioning political and social possibility in the black Atlantic world. With an aplomb worthy of her iconographic subject, she considers the black dandy in relation to nineteenth-century American literature and drama, W. E. B. Du Bois’s reflections on black masculinity and cultural nationalism, the modernist aesthetics of the Harlem Renaissance, and representations of black cosmopolitanism in contemporary visual art.
408 pages, Paperback
First published September 17, 2009
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About the author
Monica L. Miller
2 books13 followersMonica L. Miller is Assistant Professor of English at Barnard College.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
February 26, 2021
Professor of Africana Studies Dr. Monica L. Miller traces the history of Black dandyism, showing how Black people have historically used style as a means of resistance and “sartorial revenge” (109). A dandy is a (typically masculine person) who is greatly concerned with the smartness of their dress and elegance in self-presentation. Black men re-imagined colonial fashion through wit, subverting the dominant racist imagination. Rather than seeing Black dandies as imitating Western dress, Dr. Miller argues that Black dandyism broke down rigid identity markers and generated new, self-determined categories.
European colonists often emphasized the nakedness of Indigenous African people in order to depict them as “savage.” However, the peoples of West Africa actually have a vibrant history of fashion and adornment, incorporating artifacts from other regions in Africa, Europe, and Asia. West African aesthetics allow for the “embrace of the new and unusual” and include an “ability to inventively manipulate and blend the traditional and the novel” (90).
Dr. Miller argues that this adaptive impulse permeated all aspects of style including combining African and European dress and reworking cloth. These ancestral practices of weaving, dyeing, and cloth production survived the Atlantic crossing and “formed the ground of Black dandyism and self-fashioning” (89). Diasporic fashion traditions – like the Harlem dandy – pay homage to this idea of Blackness as “syncretic, collaged, intersected” (189).
Enslaved Black people were often prohibited from selecting their own clothes. Nonetheless, they were able to “define their own style in mending…their wardrobes” (91). That’s why events like Black Election Day – a festival that began in 1741 – were so important. During this day of festivity, Black people were granted one day off to rejoice and elect community governors (a symbolic position) People would dress in fancy garb and parade through the streets, often including traditional African dance. The governor usually wore emblems of royalty (like a crown). Dr. Miller argues that these festivities ensured that people not forget African customs and aesthetic practices. Black fashion, then, was about the “intersection of memory and creativity” (87).
The rest of the year Black people would be policed and punished for their fashion choices. In colonies like South Carolina sumptuary laws were passed to prohibit a person from dressing in a way that was perceived as “above his or her station.” These laws specifically forbade Black extravagance. When Black people would dress in a way that challenged white comfort, sometimes they would have the clothes stripped off of their backs (102). In their pursuit of freedom Black people would sometimes take clothing from white captors which allowed them to “pass more easily for freemen and to enter the market as consumers” (92)
In the 19th and early 20th centuries white people created racist caricatures of Black people wearing bourgeoise clothing as a way to mock Black peoples aspirations for freedom. Dr. Miller argues that Black people did not passively aspire toward white aesthetics, rather, they “understood intuitively that identity can be performed, that race is a fiction, and that both are culturally and historically based” (90). In this way, they redeployed European fashion in the construction of their own, unique identities.
European colonists often emphasized the nakedness of Indigenous African people in order to depict them as “savage.” However, the peoples of West Africa actually have a vibrant history of fashion and adornment, incorporating artifacts from other regions in Africa, Europe, and Asia. West African aesthetics allow for the “embrace of the new and unusual” and include an “ability to inventively manipulate and blend the traditional and the novel” (90).
Dr. Miller argues that this adaptive impulse permeated all aspects of style including combining African and European dress and reworking cloth. These ancestral practices of weaving, dyeing, and cloth production survived the Atlantic crossing and “formed the ground of Black dandyism and self-fashioning” (89). Diasporic fashion traditions – like the Harlem dandy – pay homage to this idea of Blackness as “syncretic, collaged, intersected” (189).
Enslaved Black people were often prohibited from selecting their own clothes. Nonetheless, they were able to “define their own style in mending…their wardrobes” (91). That’s why events like Black Election Day – a festival that began in 1741 – were so important. During this day of festivity, Black people were granted one day off to rejoice and elect community governors (a symbolic position) People would dress in fancy garb and parade through the streets, often including traditional African dance. The governor usually wore emblems of royalty (like a crown). Dr. Miller argues that these festivities ensured that people not forget African customs and aesthetic practices. Black fashion, then, was about the “intersection of memory and creativity” (87).
The rest of the year Black people would be policed and punished for their fashion choices. In colonies like South Carolina sumptuary laws were passed to prohibit a person from dressing in a way that was perceived as “above his or her station.” These laws specifically forbade Black extravagance. When Black people would dress in a way that challenged white comfort, sometimes they would have the clothes stripped off of their backs (102). In their pursuit of freedom Black people would sometimes take clothing from white captors which allowed them to “pass more easily for freemen and to enter the market as consumers” (92)
In the 19th and early 20th centuries white people created racist caricatures of Black people wearing bourgeoise clothing as a way to mock Black peoples aspirations for freedom. Dr. Miller argues that Black people did not passively aspire toward white aesthetics, rather, they “understood intuitively that identity can be performed, that race is a fiction, and that both are culturally and historically based” (90). In this way, they redeployed European fashion in the construction of their own, unique identities.
March 9, 2025
Monica Miller makes some amazing arguments in this book, and backs them up with a lot of evidence. However, this book is so jargon-heavy and packed with obscure phrases and even phrases Miller herself has made up (without effectively defining) that the book is very, very difficult to read. I'm in graduate school, and there were at least two instances on each page where I had no idea what she was trying to say.
Some writers should not be allowed to have a thesaurus.
Some writers should not be allowed to have a thesaurus.
May 20, 2025
Heard of on Dressed podcast Black Dandyism with author and then PBS News Hour "Cultural impact of Black men's fashion in the spotlight at upcoming Met Gala" led to learning the Met Gala theme and that the Met exhibition took inspiration from this book and the author is a guest curator.
The book was based on the author's PhD research (as podcasters said on their episode on the Met Gala)
Under 300 pages but heavily academic, and 55 pages of Notes, 24 pages of Bibliography, and 20 pages of Index. I got it via interlibrary loan from a college (not my county library). It was printed by a university press. So, all evidence that it's for an academic audience.
Not many pictures and other pictures are described but not printed in the book. I don't know why I was picturing something bigger but less text heavy with more and colored pictures, probably more like the Met exhibition catalogue might be, but related to that, I had to remind myself that this book is from 2009 and so everything from the 90s and 2000s was not so long ago at publication time and of course does not cover anything after that.
Chapter 1 on mid 18th century England was perhaps the most interesting to me and referenced a few books which were already on my to-read list (also further in the book) : Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain, Black London: Life Before Emancipation, Black Yankees: The Development of an Afro-American Subculture in Eighteenth-Century New England, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano.
Overall the chapter features The Padlock: A Comic Opera in Three Acts, and in Prose, with Songs , other plays with black characters (The Tempest, Oroonoko: A Play, The Battle Of Alcazar, 1597, Titus Andronicus, Othello, Lust's Dominion, The Masque of Blackness), and historical figures (Julius Soubise) who served as luxury symbols to rich white people. There were little references to the more ordinary black folks in the working class living in London that I want to know more about.
Chapter 2 on 19th century United States covers black peoples' festivals, blackface minstrelsy, and in fiction: Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Pudd'nhead Wilson, Benito Cereno, and The Marrow of Tradition.
Chapter 3 looks at W.E.B. Du Bois in The Souls of Black Folk and Dark Princess (The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois): A Romance.
Chapter 4 on Harlem Renaissance, specifically James Weldon Johnson in The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man.
Chapter 5 on a selection of visual artists in film and photography: Isaac Julien, Lyle Ashton Harris, Ike Ude, and Yinka Shonibare. The last chapter ended abruptly without conclusion to the chapter or the book as a whole.
There was a little history of photography in this last section (as it was largely discussing modern expressions through photography) with a little reference to black people having their pictures taken, and I think especially of Frederick Douglass and the many portraits he had done. I would be interested to hear more about that, but maybe it wasn't part of the dandyism history specifically.
The book was based on the author's PhD research (as podcasters said on their episode on the Met Gala)
Under 300 pages but heavily academic, and 55 pages of Notes, 24 pages of Bibliography, and 20 pages of Index. I got it via interlibrary loan from a college (not my county library). It was printed by a university press. So, all evidence that it's for an academic audience.
Not many pictures and other pictures are described but not printed in the book. I don't know why I was picturing something bigger but less text heavy with more and colored pictures, probably more like the Met exhibition catalogue might be, but related to that, I had to remind myself that this book is from 2009 and so everything from the 90s and 2000s was not so long ago at publication time and of course does not cover anything after that.
Chapter 1 on mid 18th century England was perhaps the most interesting to me and referenced a few books which were already on my to-read list (also further in the book) : Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain, Black London: Life Before Emancipation, Black Yankees: The Development of an Afro-American Subculture in Eighteenth-Century New England, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano.
Overall the chapter features The Padlock: A Comic Opera in Three Acts, and in Prose, with Songs , other plays with black characters (The Tempest, Oroonoko: A Play, The Battle Of Alcazar, 1597, Titus Andronicus, Othello, Lust's Dominion, The Masque of Blackness), and historical figures (Julius Soubise) who served as luxury symbols to rich white people. There were little references to the more ordinary black folks in the working class living in London that I want to know more about.
Chapter 2 on 19th century United States covers black peoples' festivals, blackface minstrelsy, and in fiction: Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Pudd'nhead Wilson, Benito Cereno, and The Marrow of Tradition.
Chapter 3 looks at W.E.B. Du Bois in The Souls of Black Folk and Dark Princess (The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois): A Romance.
Chapter 4 on Harlem Renaissance, specifically James Weldon Johnson in The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man.
Chapter 5 on a selection of visual artists in film and photography: Isaac Julien, Lyle Ashton Harris, Ike Ude, and Yinka Shonibare. The last chapter ended abruptly without conclusion to the chapter or the book as a whole.
There was a little history of photography in this last section (as it was largely discussing modern expressions through photography) with a little reference to black people having their pictures taken, and I think especially of Frederick Douglass and the many portraits he had done. I would be interested to hear more about that, but maybe it wasn't part of the dandyism history specifically.
July 23, 2025
Very interesting, and unsurprisingly written for an academic audience given its original purpose. It appeared to be fashion history on the surface, but more so leans into the history of identity and image making, and how that intertwined with black diasporic history at large. Very fascinating, with a sudden but almost poetic ending that I appreciated. However, my opinion on that ending seems to be unpopular, so your own opinion may vary.
The book almost feels like not only a history, but a meditation on the black dandy’s place in history and society at large, and how intrinsic it is to buck those definitions for the black dandy.
Would recommend the introduction alone for an illuminating read if you do not feel like reading the whole book! It’s absolutely full of what can be great recommendations for furthering your own research into the history of the black diaspora.
I hope that, given the Met Gala, Miller will make a 2nd Edition that muses on some of the more recent happenings since the book was published. However, I have not read her more recent work yet. So she may have already written that there.
The book almost feels like not only a history, but a meditation on the black dandy’s place in history and society at large, and how intrinsic it is to buck those definitions for the black dandy.
Would recommend the introduction alone for an illuminating read if you do not feel like reading the whole book! It’s absolutely full of what can be great recommendations for furthering your own research into the history of the black diaspora.
I hope that, given the Met Gala, Miller will make a 2nd Edition that muses on some of the more recent happenings since the book was published. However, I have not read her more recent work yet. So she may have already written that there.
May 4, 2025
This was a stunning and well-researched cultural history of the Black dandy that I read in preparation for the 2025 Met Gala, "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style." Monica L. Miller is the guest curator for this event, and the theme is heavily inspired by this book. Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity raises interesting arguments that are backed up with facts about how much fashion/style plays a part in the way that Black people are identified. We are people who shift cultural perspectives, and we put a lot into the way we present ourselves. Fashion history and cultural anthropology are huge interests of mine, and Black fashion history is a topic that is not as well-researched. I see this as a great way to get started. I learned so much from this book, and I can see myself frequently picking this up.
April 29, 2025
i really liked this book as it’s full of history, literature, and facts about how fashion has been used by black men as a way to express themselves and resist oppression and challenge societal, class, race and gender norms. it was super insightful and covered a lot of ground, though i found some parts a bit dense and hard to get through. still, i’m glad i read it. the only thing is that it ended kind of suddenly. i wish there was a proper conclusion or summary to wrap things up and more commentary on how this looks in the 2000’s since it was touched on briefly in the introduction. overall though, a really interesting and unique read and im excited to see how the book will be interpreted for the met gala this year!
January 11, 2025
I kind of lost the thread in the last two chapters But earlier chapters were illuminating. I have read a lot of Dubois but this interpretation was eye opening. I had not taken a gendered lens to his writings on black identity. I feel kind of foolish! Anyhow well worth the read. Looking forward to the Met Gala for sure.
July 5, 2025
3.5 stars. To be fair, I'm into academic writing by academics who intentionally push the boundaries of what it can do (Chancy, Brand, Hartman, Jessica Johnson) so when I step beyond that I have to adjust.
September 21, 2025
An informative and interesting read, however, my issue with this book is its pacing and organization. It felt so. long. There were only five chapters in this 400+ page book; I think it would’ve been much more digestible if those five chapters were parts, and then chapters within.
July 2, 2025
This book is pretty dense (English professors 🙂↔️) but super interesting! There’s not as much fashion as I thought there would be in a book that seems on the surface to be a fashion history. Instead it’s a compelling history of identity and self-presentation, highly recommend
November 25, 2025
I felt like this was a lit review. There was no summary or conclusion at the end. The story just ended.
August 11, 2025
Pretty dense, it took me a while for me to get through. I bought this around when the mat gala theme was announced and only finished it now. The beginning chapters about dandified liveried slaves was very interesting and reminded me of the origins of the congolese sapaur subculture. Around the middle I lost the narrative a bit because it was a lot of literary analysis of books that I am not familiar with. The final chapters about contemporary art were the most provoking to me, maybe because I am more familiar with Shonibare’s work. Wanted to finish this book before I went to the met exhibition and I did. Hoping this is illuminating when I go to Superfine.
November 11, 2024
Slaves to Fashion is one of those books that, if it weren't for it being announced as inspiration for an art exhibit at The Met and as its core theme of 2025's Met Gala, I would have never heard of it. While it's not surprising as to why and how this book got the coveted attention of Anne Wintour and the Met team, I just wish the book was more cohesive and clearer in its execution. This is a very well-researched book, and it shows by how it reads as someone who extensively did the research and made sure to describe every detail of that research. It's just that, the introduction that explained the thesis statement of this whole project is different from what is actually given to us. Its first few chapters where it focuses on the Black dandy during times of slavery was intriguing and eye-opening, exploring literary works at the time that gave us some insight into their journey and identity, but once we get past those chapters, the rest of the text after falls apart. I felt like literal whole super long chapters were a repeat of what we already read in the last chapter, almost word-for-word. We're told a lot of the same examples and samples that was already given to us before, except written more dryly, and with little context and information, to where it felt like the author did a lot of guessing and padding to eke out as much as they can get out of it based on what very little they had to work with in those later chapters. The pictures did help, but I wish there was more of them. I went into this book so excited and loving the prose style, which really shined, again, in the first two chapters, but something about the tone of the rest of the book shifted. Its energy was completely gone and felt so lost and unfocused, and the style went from invigorating to cold and dead. I was bored, and reading the rest of the book was a struggle. I did read all of it, but was really disappointed at how it felt like the author ran out of steam way too fast and didn't know what else to say on the topic so they went on, and on, and on, grasping at random examples that weren't mentioned in their introduction, until the book ends at almost 300 pages in. It's not that I didn't like this book, but I didn't love it either for how it started off so promising but fizzled out too prematurely. The execution of Slaves to Fashion was really all over the place and felt truly lost in the sauce. Still worth a dive, as I did appreciate how this wasn't too academic, the prose was accessible and enjoyable enough, but I can imagine that there are better books on the topic that can be more engaging, focused, and easier to read and follow. For what it is, Slaves to Fashion is a fine dissertation on Black male dandyism, but I thought there would've been more than JUST research, and that there would've been a clearer mission statement on what exactly she wanted us to take away from said research. When I finished reading this book, I was left going, now what? I didn't feel like I learned anything new from what I already knew going into this, so that's a bummer, but at least at most, I'll for sure look forward to seeing the Black Dandy theme of next year's Met Gala and I'll for sure visit the exhibit in this books' honor.
August 27, 2025
Absolutely amazing book if your interested in identity, race, fashion, and the idea of free will within a social complex.
10/10 recommend for anyone interested in fashion identity and likes fashion history references on a global scale.
Not really an education on fashion designers or fashion names, instead focuses on fashion identity and what it means to be fashionable, explained through race.
10/10 recommend for anyone interested in fashion identity and likes fashion history references on a global scale.
Not really an education on fashion designers or fashion names, instead focuses on fashion identity and what it means to be fashionable, explained through race.
November 2, 2025
Really interesting, although that interest was sometimes challenged by the repetitiveness of certain details - but others I found fascinating. Surprised there isn't a conclusion section, and as always, exasperated by how cheap academic publishing is, passing on color images when they would be needed to illustrate the contrasts between black-and-white and full-color images in different artists' works.
May 7, 2025
Picked this up because The Met was featuring it on their instragram for the gala. I agree with most all other comments. It was very dense. I was most engaged in the 4th chapter. I think it was just a lot, even for the avid reader.
August 6, 2025
I love fashion, and educating myself on black history, but this book was so dense & full of jargon, it read like a mundane academic textbook, I wanted to give up many times, but the conversation felt too important not to finish!
Read
November 8, 2025I won’t rate this book bc I mostly skimmed it. It was very academic. I feel kind of bad saying I wanted more pictures but ? Maybe I’ll come back to it someday. I def think the subject is interesting.
Want to read
May 27, 2022this one too
(goes with this)
(goes with this)
December 27, 2023
Great in-depth study of the history of black dandyism and black fashion, I only wish there had been a small section about dandyism in black women!
Read
February 25, 2025looking forward to the met gala (“Superfine: Tailoring Black Style”) since this was named as the inspiration
May 5, 2025
That was next level
May 5, 2025
Met Gala pre-reading.
An excellent book documenting a wide variety of references. I can only hope the carpet will be half as good.
An excellent book documenting a wide variety of references. I can only hope the carpet will be half as good.
May 17, 2025
The text is a bit overdone but the compilation of primary sources is incredible.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews