Magugu's Met Gala debut emphasises African style and storytelling

JOHANNESBURG - Award-winning creative director and designer Thebe Magugu, who is well-known for using fashion as a narrative and educational tool, made his Met Gala debut.

Canadian creative director, activist, and fashion designer Aurora James wore Thebe Magugu's debut couture appearance at the MET Gala, "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style." 

This year's lavish Manhattan benefit highlights Black dandyism's subversive aesthetic.

The topic of the blockbuster night delves into the intricate history of the precisely cut dandy look. It also commemorates the debut of a related display at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Magugu said: "I was inspired by the female muses of the Central & West African sartorial photographers in the 50’s and 60’s. Photographers like Seydou Keïta, Malick Sidibé, and Mama Casset, themselves style icons of the superfine, photographed women in a powerful blend of vintage elegance, cultural pride, and subtle sensuality. 

The self-assured gazes of these women ensured that they sit before the lens not as subjects, but as co-authors of their image and likeness. Silhouette has always been so key in these images, with the women taking on an almost totemic and sculptural shape."

The ensemble is believed to have taken 120 hours to make and uses 12 meters of Thorn Tree Brown chiffon that has been meticulously chemically crushed to create the pleating.

Magugu emphasised that although the suit has historically been a sign of respectability and power (although with a troubled past), it is but one word in a much larger vocabulary of black style. 

"Across the diaspora, black fashion draws from a tapestry of references: ancestral textiles, streetwear ingenuity, church elegance, Afrofuturist visions, diasporic remixing, and gender-fluid experimentation, said Magugu.

Magugu House, Thebe Magugu's first concept store, debuted in 2024 and was featured in TIME Magazine's list of "The Greatest Places in the World."