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When the email came from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Jacques Agbobly at first didnt quite believe it. The Brooklyn-based fashion designer had only been in the business for five years. Now, one of the worlds top museums was asking for two of his designs to be shown in Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, the exhibit launched by the starry Met Gala. I was just floored with excitement, Agbobly said in an interview. I had to check to make sure it was from an official email. And then the excitement came, and I was like am I allowed to say anything to anyone about it? Agbobly grew up in Togo, watching seamstresses and tailors create beautiful garments in part of the family home that they rented out. Studying fashion later in New York, the aspiring designer watched the Met Gala carpet from afar and dreamed of one day somehow being part of it. Superfine: Tailoring Black Style is the first Costume Institute exhibit to focus exclusively on Black designers, and the first in more than 20 years devoted to menswear. Unlike past shows that highlighted the work of very famous designers like Karl Lagerfeld or Charles James, this exhibit includes a number of up-and-coming designers like Agbobly. The range is phenomenal, says guest curator Monica L. Miller, a Barnard College professor whose book, Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, is a foundation for the show. It’s super exciting to showcase the designs of these younger and emerging designers, says Miller, who took The Associated Press through the show over the weekend before its unveiling at Mondays Met Gala, and to see the way they’ve been thinking about Black representation across time and across geography. The gala had already raised a record $31 million, Metropolitan Museum of Art CEO Max Hollein said Monday the first time the fundraiser for the Mets Costume Institute has crossed the $30 million mark and eclipsing last year’s haul of more than $26 million. Defining dandyism The exhibit covers Black style over several centuries, but the unifying theme is dandyism, and how designers have expressed that ethos through history. For Agbobly, dandyism is about taking space. As a Black designer, as a queer person, a lot of it is rooted in people telling us who we should be or how we should act dandyism really goes against that. Its about showing up and looking your best self and taking up space and announcing that you’re here. The exhibit, which opens to the public May 10, begins with its own definition: someone who studies above everything else to dress elegantly and fashionably. Miller has organized it into 12 conceptual sections: Ownership, presence, distinction, disguise, freedom, champion, respectability, jook, heritage, beauty, cool and cosmopolitanism. How clothing can dehumanize, but also give agency The ownership section begins with two livery coats worn by enslaved people. One of them, from Maryland, looks lavish and elaborate, in purple velvet trimmed with gold metallic threading. The garments were intended to show the wealth of their owners. In other words, Miller says, the enslaved themselves were items of conspicuous consumption. The other is a livery coat of tan broadcloth, likely manufactured by Brooks Brothers and worn by an enslaved child or adolescent boy in Louisiana just before the Civil War. Elsewhere, there’s a contemporary, glittering ensemble by British designer Grace Wales Bonner, made of crushed silk velvet and embroidered with crystals and the cowrie shells historically used as currency in Africa. There’s also a so-called dollar bill suit by the label 3.Paradis the jacket sporting a laminated one-dollar bill stitched to the breast pocket, meant to suggest the absence of wealth. How dress can both disguise and reveal The disguise section includes a collection of 19th-century newspaper ads announcing rewards for catching runaway enslaved people. The ads, Miller notes, would often describe someone who was particularly fond of dress or note that the person had taken large wardrobes. The reason was twofold: The fancy clothes made it possible for an enslaved person to cloak their identity. But also, when they finally made it to freedom, they could sell the clothing to help fund their new lives, Miller says. So dressing above ones station sometimes was a matter of life and death, the curator says, and also enabled people to transition from being enslaved to being liberated. The contemporary part of this section includes striking embroidered jackets by the label Off-White that purposely play with gender roles like displaying an ostensibly male jacket on a female mannequin. Views of an emerging Black middle and upper-middle class Stopping by a set of portraits from the early 19th century, as abolitionism was happening in the North, Miller explains that the subjects are Black men who were successful, well off enough to commission or sit for portraits, and dressed in the finest fashions of the day. Like William Whipper, an abolitionist and wealthy lumber merchant who also founded a literary society. They represent the beginnings of a Black middle and upper middle class in America, Miller says. But she points out a group of racist caricatures in a case right across from the portraits. Almost as soon as they are able to do this, she says, referring to the portraits, they are stereotyped and degraded. Projecting respectability: W.E.B. Du Bois and Frederick Douglass W.E.B. Du Bois, Miller points out, was not only a civil rights activist but also one of the best-dressed men in turn-of-the-century America. He traveled extensively overseas, which meant he needed clothing befitting his status as a representative of Black America to the world. Objects in the display include receipts for tailors in London, and suit orders from Brooks Brothers or his Harlem tailor. There is also a laundry receipt from 1933 for cleaning of shirts, collars, and handkerchiefs. Also highlighted in this section: Frederick Douglass, the abolitionist, writer, and statesman and also the most photographed man of the 19th century. The show includes his tailcoat of brushd wool, as well as a shirt embroidered with a D monogram, a top hat, a cane and a pair of sunglasses. Designers reflecting their African heritage One of Millers favorite items in the heritage section is Agboblys bright-colored ensemble based on the hues of bags that West African migrants used to transport their belongings. Also displayed is Agboblys denim suit embellished with crystals and beads. It’s a tribute not only to the hairbraiding salons where the designer spent time as a child, but also the earrings his grandmother or aunts would wear when they went to church. Speaking of family, Agbobly says that he ultimately did tell them and everyone about his pinch-me moment. Everyone knows about it, the designer says. I keep screaming. If I can scream on top of a hill, I will. Jocelyn Noveck and Gary Gerard Hamilton, Associated Press
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Running a small business demands many skills, including ambition and resilience. However, nothing beats financial preparednessespecially as the Trump administration’s tariffs loom.A new survey from TD Bank suggests that small business owners may not be as prepared for revenue shortfalls as they’d like to believe. Wakefield Research conducted the Financial Preparedness Survey among U.S. small business owners who have 100 employees or fewer and revenues of $100,000+ annually. Overwhelmingly, respondents reported that their business is equipped for whatever challenges the next 12 to 18 months may bring, with 94% saying they were ready. But most also admitted their business could not withstand temporary revenue shortfalls. In the survey, 72% of respondents said insufficient revenue for two quarters or less would cause them concern about their business’s future. And, more concerningly, 43% said longer dips, for three to four quarters, would be catastrophic. In other words, their business would not survive the impact of more than two quarters where revenue fell short. With the impact of federal layoffs and tariffs already setting in, 99% of respondents said they are assessing overall preparedness more frequently. “Now, more than ever, it is critical for business owners to be financially prepared,” Andy Bregenzer, cohead of U.S. Commercial Banking at TD Bank, said in the report. “Business owners who invest the time to create a financial plan will be better positioned to face challenges and seize new opportunities.”Still, respondents were divided on how to gauge their readiness. More than half say a positive cash flow is a telltale signal for how well equipped they are, while 37% said enough capital to cover emergencies is the most important way to stay afloat. Small business owners are not the only ones who are worried about stability in the wake of tariffs. In a recent survey of 5,000 frontline workers, 52% said they fear they will be laid off, while 74% said they expect Trump’s tariffs to impact their earning potential. Unsurprisingly, 77% of these workers said it’s small business owners, rather than Wall Street, who will be hurt by tariffs.
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E-Commerce
Is a side hustle really the only thing separating you from the life you desire? Listening to some influencers on social media could certainly have you thinking so. Side hustles encompass a range of self-directed entrepreneurial activities undertaken while also working a job. For young people with limited access to capital, theyre the most accessible opportunity to engage in entrepreneurship. Yet, we still know very little about who takes them on and why, and what kind of impact they have on working life in economies like Australia. Our new report, Side Hustles: How Young People Are Redefining Work, presents the first wave of findings from an ongoing three-year, mixed-methods study that seeks to answer these questions. In our first year of data collection, we surveyed 1,497 side hustlers ages 18 to 34 and interviewed a further 68. Our findings raise questions about the merits of entrepreneurship as a solution to youth unemployment or a pathway to financial freedom. What makes a side hustle? To be included in our project, a young person had to be employed, but also carrying out some form of entrepreneurship. We defined entrepreneurship as self-directed economic activity, where the side hustler has some measure of control over when they work, who they work for, and what they charge. The most popular side hustle among participants was selling goods (42.9%). Others included: services such as gardening, dog-walking or moving furniture (29.2%) creating media content (16.5%) creative work such as graphic design or photography (11.3%). Side hustling could include some gig work through online platforms, but only when these platforms allow workers to negotiate prices with clients and make choices about their work. As such, we excluded ride-share and food delivery drivers from the project. Projects for the privileged While some people may assume that young people start a side hustle out of financial stress, we found side hustlers are actually a relatively privileged cohort. They are a well-educated group. Almost two-thirds of our sample had university degrees and many of the remainder were studying. They also generally report their financial well-being as comfortable. Why is this? Side hustles often dont make much money, cost money to set up, and carry riskall of the hallmarks of entrepreneurship. Median hourly earnings from their side hustles are less than what they would make working in retail or hospitality, and on average they are about 50% what they make in their main job. As one e-commerce side-hustler put it: “If I really put my time and energy into the consideration, I would say were not making much money at all. Its just something I enjoy doing in my free time.” Their side-hustle earnings are also uncertain: 65% say they are unsure what their earnings will look like in three months. In other words, you need to be financially secure already to even contemplate a side hustle. Passion over pay Side hustles dont make enough to help someone who is really financially struggling, and they are unlikely to be a pathway out of the employment rat race. Despite this, our participants are overwhelmingly satisfied with their side hustles and say they have good work-life balance. So what motivates them? The top motivation reported in our study is passion and enjoyment. Side hustlers say they want work that relates to their interests and enjoy the autonomy and flexibility that a side hustle allows. Even though side hustles are often less profitable than a second job, the second-highest motivation was still money. Thats likely because they offer a way of making some supplementary income in a way that is flexible and autonomous. Theyre often a source of play money. One 33-year-old man with an e-commerce side hustle told us: “If I was to pick up a second job, like Uber driving at night time, I wont be happy. Ill be tired. Ill be stressed out trying to do that. Whereas, I think because Ive got the passion for it here, Im happy to do it because, like I said, Im doing it at my own pace.” Pressure to be productive Our research suggests that rather than being a pathway out of unemployment, side hustles actually represent a broader social and economic trend: More and more of young peoples lives are being encompassed by work. Interviewees frequently talked about feeling like they needed to make their time outside of work productive in some way. For some, it was as though they could not justify leisure time unless it was financially profitable. One participant told us: “You obviously want to enjoy life and have a bit of a chill time, but some days you just go, like, ‘What am I doing? Just sitting at home and just relaxing watching Netflix or whatever. I should probably be out there making more money. Blurring work life boundaries? Most participants were also not very concerned about growing their side hustles into businesses. Instead, they aspired for balanced working lives with a side hustle offering passion, flexibility, and autonomous work, and paid employment supporting them financially and offering the option of a traditional career. They also did not necessarily see the time spent on their side hustles as work, being much more personally invested and self-directed in their side hustles than in their paid jobs. But this means that much of their leisure time looks very much like work, and more and more of their lives are dedicated to being productive. David Farrugia is an ARC Future Fellow at the School of Education at Deakin University. Brendan Churchill is an ARC senior research fellow and senior lecturer in sociology at The University of Melbourne. Kim Allen is a professor of sociology of youth and culture at the University of Leeds. Stephanie Patouras is a research officer and PhD candidate at Deakin University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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