Superfine: Tailoring Black Style at The Met

Superfine: Tailoring Black Style at The Met

8/5/2025

On July 26, 2025, Russ Murray, VP of Fashion & Agency Solutions at CKS, had the privilege of exploring the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s powerful exhibition, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, housed in the Anna Wintour Costume Center. Opened in spring 2025, the exhibit charts the rich history of Black sartorial expression; from Regency dandies and post‑Civil War urban elegance to contemporary designers reinterpreting classic tailoring and luxury.

The show pays tribute to how cloth, cut, and silhouette have been used to define identity, resistance, and refined artistry.

Celebrating Black Dandy Fashion at the 2025 Met Gala

This exhibition dovetailed beautifully with the 2025 Met Gala, whose theme paid storied homage to Black dandy fashion, spotlighting generations of Black elegance—from Beau Brummell–inspired suiting to modern reinventions.

The gala’s runway celebrated tailoring as a cultural statement and invited global fashion to re‑examine the legacy of Black style makers—from early Black dandies to contemporary luminaries.

Reflections from the Visit

For Russ, the experience felt deeply resonant. Seeing garments that embodied narrative, resilience, and refinement reaffirmed how fashion is both cultural storytelling and a business ecosystem. From plush velvet suit jackets with bold linings to sharply sculpted tailoring with heritage fabrics, the show showcased Black excellence in cloth artistry.

He reflected: “The layering of identity, history, and couture in Superfine connects directly to the Met Gala’s honoring of Black dandy aesthetics. It underscores how tailoring is more than clothing—it’s legacy and innovation.”

CKS Fashion & Apparel Solutions Reflect These Values

CKS Cloud Solutions specializes in Microsoft Dynamics 365 platforms tailored for Fashion & Apparel brands. Whether it’s managing inventory for bespoke suiting houses, enabling agile production for streetwear labels, or powering omnichannel retail boutiques, CKS delivers end‑to‑end ERP and cloud‑based workflows including, but far from limited to:

Industry-Specific Focus: CKS offers dedicated Fashion & Apparel frameworks on Microsoft Dynamics for core functions like sourcing, production, and retail operations.
Partnership with K3 Fashion: Their collaboration with K3 Fashion and Pebblestone brings together best‑in‑class apparel‑industry technology with Microsoft’s cloud — helping brands transform complex supply chains and inventory management into intelligent, data‑driven operations.
Expertise Rooted in Culture: Just as Superfine explores layers of meaning in tailoring, CKS helps fashion enterprises honor their identity while innovating digitally—and Microsoft tools like Fabric, Business Central, and D365 Finance & Operations are the backbone of that transformation .

Connecting Threads: Identity, Innovation & Infrastructure

Superfine demonstrates how Black tailoring has always been about narrative, agency, and prestige.
The Met Gala elevated this conversation globally, bringing Black dandy style front and center on fashion’s biggest night.
Meanwhile, CKS Cloud Solutions provides the digital infrastructure that allows fashion brands—especially those rooted in tradition or cultural identity—to scale, adapt, and thrive in today’s global marketplace.

In essence, CKS is committed to Microsoft‑based fashion and apparel solutions that honor the multifaceted nature of industry: from runway to retail, from legacy tailoring to next‑gen street style, from heritage to digital innovation.

Final Thought

As Russ Murray said after his visit to the Superfine exhibit at The Met:

“At CKS, we see fashion as more than trends—it’s business, history, identity, and community. Just like the Superfine exhibition and the Met Gala celebrated Black tailoring as culture, CKS equips brands with the tools to preserve their story even as they grow.”