Youre looking sharp, little man!
said the photographer as I sat down.
I remember smiling bright and wide and holding on to my mother.
POWER TABLEA modern dandy is, according to author Jeremy O. Harris, “the type of man who flaunts his elevated wares much to the awe and fright of many around him.”The Dinner Party. Photographed by Tyler Mitchell, 2025.
My mama picked it out!
I said of the suit and bow tie.
The air in the room shifted.
FULL FLOWERHarris, the playwright, screenwriter, and actor, photographed by Micaiah Carter.
The nervous, pitying glances faded away.
Looking sharp was a way to communicate to people that I was taken care of.
We looked over family photos and began the arduous task of dissecting every outfit Ive ever worn.
The first thing we noticed was a shift as I moved from a baby to the terrible twos.
I went from being a smiling chubby infant to a smiling toddler in suits and ties.
Its about care, self- or otherwise.
It takes time and safety to adorn oneself, and my mother provided me with both.
I was telling my classmates that even though I had a single mother I could take care of myself.
This was in 1838.
My own dandyism is a rewrite of that foundational story too.
I remember I am not their dream, I am their reality.
The theme was Camp, and I wore a pink Gucci suit with a long bejeweled pinkie fingernail.
In my memory were the pimps Id seen on BET late-night when my uncle thought I was asleep.
(This troubles my own ideas of the dandy in ways I now find delicious.)
Or Telfars reimagining of Canal Street bootleggers as craftspeople, just as important as their Italian counterparts.
That is dandyism, too, defiantly stuntin as a habit.
Daring you to get like them.
Free from the binds of history because they are so thrillingly in the present.
FULL FLOWERHarris, the playwright, screenwriter, and actor, photographed by Micaiah Carter.
This has put the American Black dandy in a peculiar, paternalistic position.
Its a quiet delight to consider: in a new global society new narratives being written.
Youre looking sharp, little man!
I still run back to this.
Im a mamas boy.
Ive always wanted to make mama proud.
She was the person who first inspired my dandyism by brushing my hair.
Fitting me just right with the best suit.
And an even better tie.
Shame is the enemy of all exuberance.
Shame comes from fear, and fear is the enemy of style.
