Unboxed Evolution: The Essence of Black Dandyism

In contrast to outdated portrayals that overlooked the depth of Black male style, Unboxed Evolution reclaims fashion as substance and legacy. This comic stands firm in self-expression, not as trend or performance, but as a lineage. It affirms that our style speaks volumes: layered, intentional, and unapologetically ours.

Throughout history, Black men have styled themselves as a form of resistance — using clothing as a canvas to reimagine the self. Scholar Monica Miller explores this in her book, examining how fashion became a powerful tool of self-construction. Yet society often misread these acts of elegance and individuality, coding them as deviant, effeminate, or queer. As Miller notes, “Even the defeats suffered by Blackface dandies have to be analyzed in terms of how they sometimes confer odd or ‘queer’ victories on the society portraying them.”

Those so-called “defeats” were actually indicators of power. And power, when expressed through Black fashion, always unsettled the status quo.

The cultural policing of Black dandyism extended into our own communities. Those who dressed with too much flair — who bent the rules, wore nail polish, layered lace with denim, or leaned into softness — were often ostracized, especially if their aesthetic suggested queerness.

Hypermasculinity became a shield and a script, one shaped not by choice, but by survival within a racially patriarchal society.

But dandy was never about conforming. It was and is  a reclamation of the right to be. To be out of the box. To be sharp. To be seen.

Black dandyism invites us to embrace contradiction and duality: tradition and innovation, masculinity and fluidity, resistance and elegance. It is a language that speaks in textures, silhouettes, and statements. It has evolved through eras shaped by the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Arts Movement, and the rise of hip-hop  but its essence has remained the same: self-determined, sovereign, and extraordinary.

But it also asks us to go further back.

Did dandyism really begin in post-colonial America? Or did it exist long before, in Ancient African kingdoms, where rulers like Mansa Musa wore threaded robes and gold embellishments— where beauty was spiritual, and excess was divine? Why are we taught to believe dandy was something handed to us, when in truth, we’ve been defining and shifting global style all along?

This is the future of our past. A world where Blackness is not limited by history, but shaped by its reimagination.

Unboxed Evolution: The Essence of Black Dandyism challenges the narratives we’ve been given — and the ones we tell ourselves. It celebrates the odd ones out, the flamboyant, the soft, the expressive, the fearless. It invites all Black men — across the spectrum of gender and sexuality — to see fashion as a portal: to liberation, to legacy, to self.

FEATURING

Cultural Icons & Style Legends:

André Leon Talley, Dapper Dan, Andre 3000, A$AP Rocky & Rihanna, Pharrell, Colman Domingo, Jeremy Pope, June Ambrose, Janelle Monáe, Teyana Taylor
Zendaya, Solange, Tracee Ellis Ross, inspired by Mansa Musa

Photographers:

Flo Ngala, Jiraurd Key, Myesha Evon, Sean Manuel

Emerging Voices:

Jamal Bull, Pierrah Hilarie, Armiel Chandler, and Taylor Hawkins

Fashion Brands:

Wales Bonner, Martine Rose, Bianca Saunders, and Tolu Coker