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‘Superfine’ Brings Radiant Black Style to the Met

Heritage meets gumption at the Costume Institute’s big spring exhibition, where pathbreaking pieces join anonymous garments to build a moving history.

© Naila Ruechel for The New York Times

“Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” looks at the historic and courageous role clothing has played in acknowledging and elevating social stature. A jockey’s silks, 1830–50, signaled the expertise of the enslaved “plantation tailors” who created them. They were made not from a striped fabric but from green ribbons meticulously sewn to a red satin ground. Black jockeys lost their positions after Jim Crow.
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