A NOTE FROM THE CURATOR
Caftan: Style as Liberation and Cultural Exchange aims to explore the intersections of fashion, history, and social change. At the heart of this rationale is a recognition that art and fashion are reflections of their times, carrying the weight of history and the possibility of futures yet to come.
Five years on from the events of 2020, fashion and media still bear the imprint of that racial reckoning. Industry initiatives have been established to push back against the marginalization of Black creativity, and Black editors now occupy influential positions across leading publications. These developments matter; they mark a break with long histories of exclusion and affirm the cultural power of Black style and perspective. Yet visibility alone does not dismantle entrenched hierarchies. For every advance in representation, there remains the harder question of how to transform the structures—institutions, markets, and canons—that continue to circumscribe who is celebrated and who is forgotten. Five years later, in a climate where equity itself is under attack, we are again challenged to consider whether fashion can move beyond symbolic inclusion toward lasting structural change.
SCHEDULE
3:00pm to 3:15pm
Welcome and Introduction
This moment is also one to pay tribute to André Leon Talley (1948–022), to whose gorgeous caftans this event pays titular homage. A maverick in fashion and media, Talley stood as a possibility model for generations of people of color imagining what it meant to be unapologetically visible in fashion’s most rarefied spaces. The Costume Institute’s Superfine: Tailoring Black Style exhibition brings this legacy into sharp relief, underscoring how tailoring, aesthetics, and representation have long been entangled with questions of power, identity, and liberation.
To celebrate the caftan in this context is to embrace it as more than a garment—it is a living archive of diasporic creativity, exchange, and resilience. Through Caftan, we invite audiences to see fashion not as surface, but as a sign of the times: a canvas on which Black style continues to write its own story of survival, beauty, and imagination.
—Tavia Nyong’o, Curator of Public Programming and Scholar-in-Residence at Park Avenue Armory
With outgoing president of the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) and Armory board member Joyce F. Brown and Park Avenue Armory Curator of Public Programming and Scholar-in-Residence Tavia Nyong’o
3:15pm to 4:15pm
Sign of the Times: Black Style as Reflection, Resistance, and Representation
A conversation between award-winning author and CUNY Graduate Center Professor of History Tanisha C. Ford, artist and founder of The Institute of Black Imagination Dario Calmese, and Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Black Fashion Fair Antoine Gregory, moderated by Assistant Professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology, journalist, award-winning editor, cultural curator, and Founder of Native Son Emil Wilbekin
4:15pm to 4:25pm Break
4:25pm to 4:35pm
In Dialogue: André Leon Talley and Today
A presentation by installation curator Bryan Washington
4:35pm to 5:35pm
Do Your Homework
A presentation by Monica Miller, Curator of the Met Costume Institute’s Superfine: Tailoring Black Style exhibit, followed by Q&A facilitated by Tavia Nyong’o
5:35pm to 6:00pm
Closing Reception
MAKING SPACE AT THE ARMORY CAFTAN: STYLE AS LIBERATION AND CULTURAL EXCHANGE
sunday, september 28, 2025 from 3pm to 6pm
veterans room
Making Space at the Armory is made possible with support from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF).
Bloomberg Philanthropies is Park Avenue Armory’s 2025 Season Sponsor. Leadership support for the Armory’s artistic programming has been generously provided by the Anita K. Hersh Philanthropic Fund, Charina Endowment Fund, Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust, the Pinkerton Foundation, the Starr Foundation, and the Thompson Family Foundation. Major support was also provided by the Emily Davie and Joseph S. Kornfeld Foundation, the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Marc Haas Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, the SHS Foundation, and Wescustogo Foundation. Additional support has been provided by the Armory’s Artistic Council. Public support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature as well as the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council under the leadership of Speaker Adrienne Adams.
Cover image by: Griffin Lipson.
ANDRÉ LEON TALLEY AND TODAY
CURATED BY BRYAN WASHINGTON LIBRARY
Caftan: Style as Liberation and Cultural Exchange explores the cultural and historical significance of the caftan as a garment of power, identity, and self-expression. Rooted in centuries of global tradition and embraced across regions from North Africa to the Middle East and beyond, the caftan carries with it histories of cultural exchange, adaptation, and symbolism. For André Leon Talley, the caftan was not only a sartorial choice but also a profound statement of liberation—an emblem of beauty, dignity, and authority.
This event is accompanied by an installation, In Dialogue: André Leon Talley and Today, which brings together Talley’s own garments with works from designers and artists selected for their distinct perspectives on fashion and its impact on the wearer. Placed in conversation, these pieces reflect on Talley’s enduring influence and the ways in which style continues to serve as a form of liberation and cultural exchange.
A special thank you to our invited designers and artists: Beau McCall, Junlin He, and Mariam Shengelia. We are also deeply grateful to the collectors who have graciously loaned their pieces previously owned by André Leon Talley: Cynthia Murphy, Andrew Loren & Patrick Mclauchlan, and Ryan Sager.
—Bryan Washington, Installation Curator
ARTWORKS
An Evening Coat Composed and Created with Eighteenth-Century Fabric, Metallic Embroidery
With silk velvet, silk brocade, couched embroidery appliques and metallic trims
From the collection of André Leon Talley
Navy Wool Pinstripe Caftan
Narrow stand collar and chest-length false buttoning placket with surrounding yoke, patch pocket at proper left chest, trained at rear hem, unlined; fabric selvedge marked “All Wool Made In Italy Especially Made for B.G.C.”
From the collection of André Leon Talley
Talley wore this caftan to the Chado Ralph Rucci Fall 2011 fashion show at 536 Broadway on February 14, 2011 in New York City.
Ivory Printed Silk Kimono by Donna Karan
Ivory satin printed in shades of black and beige with pattern of painterly circus acrobats and musicians, with long hanging sleeves and slits at either side, self lined.
From the collection of André Leon Talley
Button Armor Ensemble by Beau McCall (2023)
Armor: metal and plastic clothing buttons, wire; denim. Caftan: designed by Beau McCall with garment production by Strugala; hoop skirt.
From the collection of Beau McCall
The title is derived from McCall’s 2014 piece Button Armor (permanent collection of MAD Museum), a smaller scale version primarily worn as a necklace. Through both works McCall has created a series of what he refers to as “armor” to encourage bold, proud, and courageous self-expression through the nonconformity of wearable art.
Red Ensemble by Junlin He (2024)
Cape: Spandex Jersey, mesh, vinyl. Top: Viscose yarn, cotton yarn. From the URANIA / FAGGOTRON projects
URANIA / FAGGOTRON are two interlinking projects created by designer Junlin He. With a focus on experimental techniques and patron-maker collaborations, He proposes a highly localized system of fashion dissemination. The tank top explores collective memories and the fleeting moment when abstract shapes become recognizable patterns. The lettering design in front, made from a single interwoven cord on the mesh, was custom made to the clients initials. The cape is pieced together with off-cuts and waste from garment production. Fetishizing a future where fashion’s raw material is scarce, and people have to make the best out of what is available.
Caftan with Tailoring Details by Mariam Shenge (2025)
Cotton blend
André Leon Talley inspired traditional caftan with a bib insert. The back of the garment resembles a tailcoat.
ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS
DR. JOYCE F. BROWN
Dr. Joyce Brown is a visionary educator and academic leader who has successfully managed complex fiscal, administrative, and strategic issues, creating transformative institutional changes. Since 1998, she has been president of the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) and The FIT Foundation. Dr. Brown’s accomplishments at FIT include: an ambitious strategic and investment plan that built faculty ranks, expanded curriculum, invigorated the culture, and raised the university’s profile; funding and construction of the college’s first new academic building in over 40 years, set to open in the next month; and raising over $4 million from corporate partners to create The Social Justice Center (SJC) at FIT to address the systemic problems faced by BIPOC youth, college students, and working professionals in the fields that drive the creative economy; among others. PhD Counseling Psychology, NYU.
DARIO CALMESE
Dario Calmese is an artist, creative director, and design theorist whose work interrogates how identity and history are constructed through image, design, and cultural systems. His multidisciplinary practice spans photography, fashion, performance, and critical theory, with a focus on reclaiming narratives and reimagining the lived experience. In 2020, Calmese made history as the first Black photographer to shoot a cover for Vanity Fair, capturing Viola Davis. As Founder of the Institute of Black Imagination, he is pioneering a global platform for Black creativity and futurism, redefining how history is preserved, how culture is produced, and how imagination shapes the world we inherit. A 2023 Loeb Fellow at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, Calmese also teaches at Parsons School of Design and served on the global advisory board for Estée Lauder Companies. His creative direction spans partnerships with Alvin Ailey, Adobe Lightroom, Esquire, Rolling Stone, Vogue Mexico, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
TANISHA C. FORD
Tanisha C. Ford is an award-winning writer and Professor of History and Biography and Memoir at The Graduate Center, CUNY. She is the author of four books, including the NAACP Image Award-winning Our Secret Society: Mollie Moon and the Glamour, Money, and Power Behind the Civil Rights Movement and Liberated Threads: Black Women, Style, and the Global Politics of Soul. She writes regularly for public audiences, with stories in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Elle, Town & Country, and Harper’s Bazaar, among others. Ford was named to The Root’s 100 Most Influential African Americans list for her innovative, public-facing scholarship.
ANTOINE GREGORY
Antoine Gregory is a fashion consultant and archivist based in New York. Gregory is a graduate from New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology with a background in fashion and art history, trend research, and forecasting. His dedication to the preservation and documentation of current, future, and past Black fashion led him to found Black Fashion Fair, a fashion and culture platform aimed toward the discovery and furtherance of Black designers and Black-owned brands. He has worked on projects for Pyer Moss and Telfar and continues to collaborate with emerging designers of color.
MONICA MILLER
Monica L. Miller is Chair and Professor of Africana Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University. A specialist in contemporary African American and Afro-diasporic literature and cultural studies, she is the author of the book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, which inspired her guest curation of Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, the 2025 Costume Institute exhibition at The Met. A frequent commentator in the media and arts worlds, she teaches and writes about Black literature, art, and performance, fashion cultures, and contemporary Black European culture and politics.
TAVIA NYONG’O
Tavia Nyong’o is a scholar and curator of performance. He is the author of The Amalgamation Waltz: Race, Performance, and the Ruses of Memory (2009), which won the Erroll Hill Award for Best Book in Black Performance Studies; and Afro-Fabulations: The Queer Drama of Black Life (2018), which won the Barnard Hewitt Award for Best Book in Theater and Performance Studies. He writes regularly for Frieze, Artforum, The Baffler, and other venues. He is Chair and Wiliam Lampson Professor of Theater and Performance Studies at Yale and Curator of Public Programming and Scholar-in-Residence at Park Avenue Armory. He was recently awarded a 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship in Theatre Arts and Performance.
BRYAN WASHINGTON
Bryan Washington is the co-curator of Caftan: Style as Liberation and Cultural Exchange, where he curated the garment installation In Dialogue: André Leon Talley and Today. A creative thinker working across fashion, art, and creative technology, he brings an interdisciplinary approach to his practice. His work spans curation, creative direction, design, and coding.
EMIL WILBEKIN
Emil Wilbekin is contributor to The New York Times, T Magazine, Vogue, The Cut, Architectural Digest, and Town & Country. He is Co-Producer and Writer on The Remix: Hip Hip X Fashion (Netflix) and Founder of Native Son, a platform created to inspire and empower Black gay and queer men with the purpose of amplifying the voice and visibility of this community. Wilbekin has appeared on-air discussing pop culture, fashion, style, entertainment, and current affairs on The Today Show, NBC Channel 4 News New York, E!, MTV, BET, CNN, and PBS, among other outlets. Wilbekin has served as Chief Content Officer at Afropunk, Editor-at-Large at Essence, Managing Editor of Essence.com, Editor-in-Chief of Giant, Style Guru at Complex Media, VP of Brand Development at Marc Eckō Enterprises, Editorial Director/Vice President of Vibe Ventures, and Editor-in-Chief of Vibe Magazine. Under Wilbekin’s leadership, Vibe won the 2002 National Magazine Award for General Excellence. BS Mass Media Arts, Hampton University; MS Journalism, Columbia University.
PRODUCTION ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Ben Wygonik Audio Engineer
Daniel Santamaria Video Engineer
Special thanks to Liz Bickley Studios, Kyle Hagler, Journey Streams, Native Son, The Jeffries, Yardy World, The Institute of Black Imagination, Junlin He, Mariam Shengelia, Imran Alifu, and Beau McCall
ABOUT PUBLIC PROGRAMMING AT THE ARMORY
Park Avenue Armory’s Public Programming series brings diverse artists and cultural thought-leaders together for discussion and performance around the important issues of our time viewed through an artistic lens. Launched in 2017, the series encompasses a variety of programs including large-scale community events; multi-day symposia; intimate salons featuring performances, panels, and discussions; Artist Talks in relation to the Armory’s Drill Hall programming; and other creative interventions, curated by professor and scholar Tavia Nyong’o
Highlights from the Public Programming series include: Carrie Mae Weems’ 2017 event The Shape of Things and 2021 convening and concert series Land of Broken Dreams, whose participants included Elizabeth Alexander , Theaster Gates, Elizabeth Diller, Nona Hendryx, Somi, and Spike Lee, among others; a daylong Lenape Pow Wow and Standing Ground Symposium held in the Wade Thompson Drill Hall, the first congregation of Lenape Elders on Manhattan Island since the 1700s; “A New Vision for Justice in America” conversation series in collaboration with Common Justice, exploring new coalitions, insights, and ways of understanding question of justice and injustice in relation moderated by FLEXN Evolution creators Reggie (Regg Roc) Gray and director Peter Sellars; Culture in a Changing America Symposia exploring the role of art, creativity, and imagination in the social and political issues in American society today; the 2019 Black Artists Retreat hosted by Theaster Gates, which included public talks and performances, private sessions for the 300 attending artists, and a roller skating rink; 100 Years | 100 Women, a multiorganization commissioning project that invited 100 women artists and cultural creators to respond to women’s suffrage; a Queer Hip Hop Cypher, delving into the queer origins and aesthetics of hip hop with Astraea award-winning duo Krudxs Cubensi and author and scholar Dr. Shante Paradigm Smalls; the Archer Aymes Retrospective, exploring the legacy of emancipation through an immersive art installation curated by Carl Hancock Rux and featuring a concert performance by mezzo soprano Alicia Hall Moran and pianist Aaron Diehl, presented as one component of a three-part series commemorating Juneteenth in collaboration with Harlem Stage and Lincoln Center as part of the Festival of New York; legendary artist Nao Bustamante’s BLOOM, a cross-disciplinary investigation centered around the design of the vaginal speculum and its use in the exploitative and patriarchal history of the pelvic examination; Art at Water’s Edge, a symposium inspired by the work of director and scholar May Joseph on artistic invention in the face of climate change, including participants such as Whitney Biennale curator Adrienne Edwards, artist Kiyan Williams, Little Island landscape architect Signe Nielsen, eco-systems artist Michael Wang, and others; Symposium: Sound & Color – The Future of Race in Design, an interdisciplinary forum exploring how race matters in creative design for live performance hosted by lighting designer Jane Cox, playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, set designer Mimi Lien, and sound designer and composer Mikaal Sulaiman and featuring collaborations with Design Action and Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Juke Joint, a two-day event spotlighting the history of the juke joint in Black American social history and its legacy in music and culture, including performances by Pamela Sneed and Stew; Hapo Na Zamani,
a 1960s-style happening curated by Carl Hancock Rux with music direction by Vernon Reid, and presented in collaboration with Harlem Stage; Hidden Conversations, a celebration of Dr. Barbara Ann Teer with National Black Theatre; and Corpus Delicti, a convening of artists, activists, and intellectuals imagines and enacts transgender art and music as a vehicle for dialogue across differences presented in collaboration with the NYC Trans Oral History Project
Notable Public Programming salons include: the Literature Salon hosted by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, whose participants included Lynn Nottage, Suzan Lori-Parks, and Jeremy O. Harris; a Spoken Word Salon co-hosted with the Nuyorican Poets Cafe; a Film Salon featuring the works of immersive artist and film director Lynette Wallworth; “Museum as Sanctuary” led by installation artist and Artist-in-Residence Tania Bruguera, curated by Sonia Guiñansaca and CultureStrike, and featuring undocu-artists Julio Salgado and Emulsify; a Dance Salon presented in partnership with Dance Theater of Harlem, including New York City Ballet’s Wendy Whelan and choreographer Francesca Harper, among others; Captcha: Dancing, Data, Liberation, a salon exploring Black visual complexity and spirit, led by visionary artist Rashaad Newsome and featuring Saidiya V. Hartman, Kiyan Williams, Dazié Rustin Grego-Sykes, Ms.Boogie, Puma Camillê, and others; and Seasons of Dance, a contemporary dance salon featuring conversations with “mother of contemporary African dance” Germaine Acogny, Tanztheater Wuppertal dancer Malou Airaudo, and dancers from The Rite of Spring / common ground[s] at the Armory.
Artist Talks have featured esteemed artists, scholars, and thought leaders, such as: actor Bobby Cannavale; architects Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, and Elizabeth Diller; artist and composer Heiner Goebbels; choreographers Reggie (Regg Roc) Gray, Bill T. Jones, and Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker; composers Philip Miller, Thuthuka Sibisi, Tyshawn Sorey, Samy Moussa, and Alexandra Gardner; composer and director Michel van der Aa; composer, vocalist, and scholar Gelsey Bell; conductors Amandine Beyer and Matthias Pintscher; designer Peter Nigrini; directors Claus Guth, Robert Icke, Richard Jones, Sam Mendez, Satoshi Miyagi, Ariane Mnouchkine, Ben Powers, Peter Sellars, Simon Stone, Ian Strasfogel, Ivo van Hove, and Alexander Zeldin; Juilliard president Damian Woetzel and Juilliard Provost and Dean Ara Guzelimian; musicians Helmut Deutsch, Nona Hendryx, Miah Persson, and Davóne Tines; New Yorker editor David Remnick; James Nicola, Artistic Director of New York Theater Workshop; performance artists Marina Abramović and Helga Davis; RoseLee Goldberg, Founding Director and Chief Curator of Performa; playwrights Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Tony Kushner, Lynn Nottage, and Anne Washburn; Dr. Augustus Casely Hayford, Director of the Smithsonian, National Museum of African Art; visual artists Nick Cave, William Kentridge, Julie Mehretu, Julian Rosefeldt, Hito Steyerl, and Ai Wei Wei; and writers and scholars Anne Bogart, Robert M. Dowling, Emily Greenwood, and Carol Martin.
ABOUT PARK AVENUE ARMORY
Part palace, part industrial shed, Park Avenue Armory supports unconventional works in the performing and visual arts that cannot be fully realized in a traditional proscenium theater, concert hall, or white wall gallery. With its soaring 55,000-square-foot Wade Thompson Drill Hall—reminiscent of 19th-century European train stations—and an array of exuberant period rooms, the Armory provides a platform for artists to push the boundaries of their practice, collaborate across disciplines, and create new work in dialogue with the historic building. Across its grand and intimate spaces, the Armory enables a diverse range of artists to create, students to explore, and audiences to experience epic, adventurous, relevant work that cannot be done elsewhere in New York.
The Armory both commissions and presents performances and installations in the grand Drill Hall and offers more intimate programming through its acclaimed Recital Series, which showcases musical talent from across the globe within the salon setting of the Board of Officers Room; its Artists Studio series curated by Jason Moran in the restored Veterans Room; Making Space at the Armory, a public programming series that brings together a discipline-spanning group of artists and cultural thought-leaders around the important issues of our time;
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
and the Malkin Lecture Series that features presentations by scholars and writers on topics related to Park Avenue Armory and its history.
In addition, the Armory also has a year-round Artists-in-Residence program, providing space and support for artists to create new work and expand their practices.
The Armory’s creativity-based arts education programs provide access to the arts to thousands of students from underserved New York City public schools, engaging them with the institutions artistic programming and outside-the-box creative processes. Through its education initiatives, the Armory provides access to all Drill Hall performances, workshops taught by Master Teaching Artists, and in-depth residencies that support the schools’ curriculum. Youth Corps, the Armory’s year-round paid internship program, begins in high school and continues into the critical post-high school years, providing interns with mentored employment, job training, and skill development, as well as a network of peers and mentors to support their individual college and career goals.
The Armory is undergoing a multi-phase renovation and restoration of its historic building led by architects Herzog & de Meuron, with Platt Byard Dovell White as Executive Architects.
Avant-Garde
