It was his favorite photograph of himself, taken by Arthur Elgort, 1988: André Leon Talley, in a wash of sunlight, striding up Fifth Avenue in a gray panel-checked suit by the tailor Morty Sills. He has his hands in his pockets; the jacket is neatly buttoned; his face is in profile; and the rest of the street is sunk into shadow as if André is a star on a stage, which of course he was, wherever he went. That was what made André so incredible: his instinct for self-presentation. He understood that, especially as a Black man, what you wore told a story about you, about your history, about self-respect. And so, for André, getting dressed was an act of autobiography, and also mischief and fantasy, and so much else at once. The suit fits him beautifully, by the way. No wonder The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute has included it in the exhibition “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.”

As the show’s curators, Monica L. Miller and Andrew Bolton, have been busy preparing “Superfine,” we at Vogue have been hard at work on a parallel effort: a tribute to the exhibition and a celebration of its themes of menswear, identity and history, the Black dandy in fashion, and his many expressions and forms. We’ve featured the Gala’s four co-chairs on covers this month—Pharrell Williams (painted by Henry Taylor), A$AP Rocky, Colman Domingo, and Lewis Hamilton—and we gathered a host of Black artists, actors, models, athletes, and more for a bravura shoot with Tyler Mitchell, one of many photographers, fashion editors, and writers of color who lent their creativity to the May issue. (Denzel Washington is in the issue, too; André boasted to me that he looked just like him in the Elgort.)

Talley’s Morty Sills suit will appear in “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Alfred Z. Solomon-Janet A. Sloane Endowment Fund, 2023. Photo © Tyler Mitchell 2025.