Drawing inspiration from guest curator Monica L. Miller’s 2009 book, slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the styling of Black Diasporic Identity.

It’s been 20 years since the Metropolitan Museum of Art dedicated one of its costume exhibitions to the attire of men, and that was “Braveheart: Men in Skirts.”

And it has never focused an exhibition squarely on the subject of race. But its Costume Institute show — the one that regularly opens on the first Monday in May with a gala bedazzled with actors, musicians, politicians and famously famous people — will examine the complicated story of the Black dandy. The Costume Institute is not known for leaping into the cultural fray, but with

“Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,”

it’s jumping into the deep end. The Black dandy is a locus of our ambivalence about race, gender, class and masculinity.

The Met Gala will be co-chaired by Colman Domingo, Pharrell Williams, A$AP Rocky, Lewis Hamilton and Anna Wintour. LeBron James is an honorary co-chair.