How are fashion movements created, worn, and then remembered? A series of recent fashion exhibitions have inspired the team at Threadbared, feminist fashion, culture, and theory blog. In response to the Black Fashion Museum and recent exhibitions in New York City, the familiar white, bourgeois fashion narrative often eclipses the histories of women of color. For example, the recent exhibit at the Costume Institute, “American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity,” does not strike me as anything novel — the predictable homage to princesses and wealthy white women.

An Other Fashion: Claiming America through Dress is a grass roots project, assembling and “curating a different kind of fashion exhibition, one that explores the fashion histories of women of color and in relation to women of color.” Specifically, An Other Fashion seeks to be …

“a critical intervention into traditional understandings of fashion history, histories of ‘American’ womanhood, and official memory practices. The exhibition seeks to critically explore the creative, cultural and political ways in which racially minoritized women in the U.S. have employed practices of dress and beauty to claim Americanness. Through highlighting garments, accessories, photographs, videos and texts, An Other Fashion does more than rediscover a hidden past; this groundbreaking exhibition reimagines our understanding of and relationship to the past. In providing a glimpse of the sartorial ephemera of women of color’s material cultural histories, this exhibition commemorates lives and experiences too often considered not important enough to save or to study.”

Feminist appraisal of fashion summons an investigation of race, class, gender, and the creation of history. Clothes, what some consider their most intimate possessions, contain the untold histories of many marginalized women. With the couture fashion industry dominated by men, the accomplishments of “ordinary” women of color are can be forgotten. As my buddy once told me, when men do it, it’s a career, when women do it, it’s a chore. And while I cringe at such one-dimensional feminist mantras, the fashion narratives in mainstream publications perpetuate similarly one-dimensional perspectives of fashion history. Especially in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the diversity of alternative clothing may never be known.

If you are interested in An Other Fashion, check out how you can contribute and learn more. An Other Fashion is calling for:

–Handmade, store-bought, or altered garments and accessories. Please note that garments do not need to be in perfect condition. The life of the garment is important to us!
–Family or vintage photographs featuring women of color in fashionable looks
–Newspaper and magazine articles and advertisements targeting women of color. Original prints are useful.|
–Other sartorial ephemera, such as accessories, packaging, cosmetics etc.

Have any of you checked these exhibits out? What do you think?

2 Responses to “Threadbared’s An Other Fashion: Curating a Fashion Exhibit for Women of Color (And How You Can Get Involved)”

1. Threadbared's An Other Fashion: Curating a Fashion Exhibit for … | yintsang.com says:

   July 11, 2010 at 12:55 pm

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2. Patrick Mohr’s Bearded and Bald Models at Berlin’s Fashion Week – Zelda Lily, Feminism in a Bra says:

   July 12, 2010 at 12:34 pm

   [...] past week, Berlin’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week gathered designers, artists, and celebrities alike to showcase the upcoming season’s [...]

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