Look closely in my “Black Bags” posts and you’ll find the occasional Easter egg.

This might be my favorite of them.

In my last post, peeking from behind my neatly wrapped @denimtears parcel, very real postcard photographs—some even embossed with the studio’s logo—have stories of their own.

These are the faces of the Met Museum’s Superfine exhibit and Denim Tears, hidden behind the veil of American History.

An immaculate gentleman, fitted even to the buttons on his heeled shoes.

Sisters in satin and lace, gazing from a beautiful Victrola.

Lovers—maybe even honeymooners?—riding a donkey cart in Mexico.

A bespectacled musician accessorized with elbow-length gloves, perhaps to hide the wear to her hands?

A woman dressed all in black, whose ruffled lace waistcoat is only outdone by the exquisite jeweled bracelet and ring on her hands.

Photographs of Black people from days past already seem rare.

Photographs of them dressed in and surrounded by such luxury feel priceless.

But these five only scratch the surface of my collection.

And Superfine, hosted in the Met Museum’s premier gallery, only housed a fraction of the finery owned, made and inspired by Black Americans.

Denim Tears is their legacy.

And all three—the photographs, the exhibit, and the brand—bear witness that creative, adventurous, romantic, bespoke, affluent, and deserving have never been synonymous with “white.”

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KEEP GOING BLACK IN HISTORY:

Get your African Diaspora Goods at denimtears.com

For more photos like these, follow curator at the @schomburgcenter and author, Kimberly Annece Henderson at @emalineandthem.