Afro Dandyism dress code: How the SAMAs are localising fashion’s biggest cultural moment
· Citizen
When the South African Music Awards (SAMAs) announced “Afro Dandyism” as this year’s dress code, with the accompanying line that “true style is all in the storytelling”, it set a fashion brief for the Sun City Superbowl and positioned the annual event’s red carpet to retain its spot as one of the most dissected nights on the local entertainment calendar.
While the Dandyism dress code is nothing new, adding the “Afro” prefix to the 32nd South African Music Awards (SAMA32) includes South Africa in a conversation that has been building since May 2025, when the Met Gala turned its blue carpet over to Black Dandyism for the first time in the event’s history.
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Superfine and the dandy as resistance
That Met Gala’s theme, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style”, was drawn from Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, the book by scholar Monica L. Miller that traces how enslaved and formerly enslaved Black men in the 18th and 19th centuries were first dressed in fine livery to display their owners’ wealth – and how they, in turn, reclaimed that same sharp tailoring as a tool of self-definition.
What began as a mark of ownership became, over centuries, a language of pride, defiance and identity.
Miller guest-curated the accompanying Costume Institute exhibition, and the gala’s dress code, “Tailored for You”, pushed attendees toward menswear, exaggerated silhouettes, and pieces that told a personal or ancestral story rather than simply looking expensive.
The night delivered exactly that. British-Ghanaian designer Ozwald Boateng dressed Tems, Burna Boy and Ncuti Gatwa in Kente-patterned tailoring and jewel-toned capes; Janelle Monáe leaned into whimsical, oversized silhouettes; and guests like Lauryn Hill and Doja Cat wore their natural hair as its own dandy statement. These style choices took the ideas around the theme a step further, showing that it was never only about the suit, but about the whole architecture of self-presentation.
It was also, notably, a night many critics felt underserved the continent itself.
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Despite appearances from South African designers David Tlale and Thebe Magugu, several commentators pointed out that a theme built entirely on the African diasporic experience left surprisingly little room for African design language on the carpet. Which is exactly the gap “Afro Dandyism” appears designed to close.
Why the “Afro” matters
Dandyism, as Miller frames it, is a transatlantic story; one born in the collision of enslaved Black identity with European sartorial codes.
Adding “Afro” to the SAMA32 brief is a redirection: away from the diaspora’s reinterpretation of Savile Row tailoring, and toward the continent’s own, older archive of dressing to communicate status, lineage and story – Xhosa beadwork, Zulu regalia, mineworker and mission-school uniforms repurposed as resistance wear, the sharp two-tone suits of 1950s Sophiatown, the tailored church and stokvel dress codes that still govern Sunday best in townships across the country.
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For South African stars walking the Sun City carpet, that also expands briefly, allowing guests to honour the dandy’s core grammar – sharp tailoring, considered colour, exaggerated proportion, accessorising with intent – but build it from local material and local memory rather than importing the aesthetic wholesale.
The designers already speaking this language
A handful of South African labels have been doing versions of Afro Dandyism for years, long before it had a name attached to an awards show:
- Wanda Lephoto – The Johannesburg menswear label’s “Black Renaissance” collection is arguably the closest local blueprint for the theme, reworking uniforms of colonial and religious authority – including a khaki biker jacket inspired by the Zion Christian Church uniform his own father wore – into pieces about inherited identity and reclaimed authority.
- MaXhosa Africa (Laduma Ngxokolo) – Built the brand’s entire identity on translating Xhosa beadwork patterns and initiation-rite colour codes into luxury knitwear, giving heritage dress a tailored form. It would be lovely to see an elevated, red-carpet-ready translation of this.
- David Tlale and Thebe Magugu – Both carried South African design onto the Met Gala’s own blue carpet in 2025, each known locally for pairing precise tailoring with distinctly South African references, from Sotho blanket motifs to research-driven, narrative-led collections.
- Imprint ZA (Mzukisi Mbane) – A regular presence at AFI’s own “Afro Dandy” showcases, known for layering boubou-style robes over sharply tailored wide-leg trousers – a literal stitching-together of continental silhouette and Western tailoring.
- Rich Mnisi – Not a straightforward tailoring house, but consistently dandy in spirit: sculptural, colour-driven, unafraid of drama, and rooted in Tsonga heritage storytelling.
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The 32nd South African Music Awards are set to take place on Saturday, 15 August at the Sun City Superbowl in the North West Province. Cassper Nyovest and Zanele Potelwa have been tapped to host, with Oskido and Tyla expected to receive special honours.