What is literary about fashion and what are the ways in which fashion is literary? How and why does this matter for Black designers who reference Black history and culture in their work? How does their practice of “close reading” intervene in dominant narratives about black identity and the ways in which fashion broadcasts and/or delimits black cultural expression? This talk will discuss how the work of Black designers and wearers evolve and innovate conversations about the representation of Blackness to create a new, liberatory language for and with fashion and race.

Monica L. Miller is Chair and Professor of Africana Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University. A specialist in contemporary African American and Afro-diasporic literature and cultural studies, she is the author of the book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, winner of the William Sanders Scarborough Prize for an outstanding scholarly study of black American literature or culture from the Modern Language Association. A frequent commentator in the media and arts worlds, she teaches and writes about black literature, art, and performance, fashion cultures, and contemporary Black European culture and politics. A grantee from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the Institute for Citizens and Scholars, she is the guest curator of the spring 2025 Costume Institute exhibition Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.