'The Quiet Eye of the Storm.'
Understanding the bindi, fashion and colonialism, an introduction to our researcher Laura and why this work is only the beginning.
Hello everyone,
Much has changed since my last message to you, and my spirit has been buoyed up, seeing what’s possible in terms of diversity and compassion in the United States of America. I’m elated to see so many of us engaged in the nuances of politics, working to better understand how power operates and seeing just how powerful our voices and actions are. Much of this election’s outcome has involved a fight for democracy that was shouldered by the most oppressed amongst us, and it is key that we acknowledge that moving forward. That said, The Fashion and Race Database platform was established in 2017 and is more critical than ever, as it seeks to be an intellectual and creative engine that drives academia, the business of fashion and the public realm forward into 2021 (and beyond!). If you’d like to help fund our research team’s work next year, I invite you to consider making a donation or sponsoring this ongoing project. We rely on fundraising to keep this content coming, and Joe and Kamala are not paying our bills.
Speaking of our research team…
This past month we have welcomed our second research cohort. This week, I’d like to introduce you to Laura Beltrán-Rubio (she/her):
Laura Beltrán-Rubio specializes in the history of art and fashion in the early modern Spanish World. She is a doctoral candidate at the College of William and Mary and received her MA in Fashion Studies from Parsons School of Design. Her dissertation explores the adoption and adaptation of European fashions, their fusion with local Indigenous elements of dress, and their representation in portraits and pictures of types in the Viceroyalty of New Granada in the second half of the eighteenth century.
From the Library: Fashion and Colonialism
For this week’s roundup of sources from The Library, Research Assistant Kai Marcel draws connections between fashion and colonialism:
This week’s roundup explores fashion’s place within discourses about colonialism. Each of these sources analyzes the enduring legacies of European colonialism within the fashion system and the ways in which colonial knowledges have continued to influence hegemonic ideals of beauty, culture, and identity. Not only is fashion a central piece of the history of colonial industry, it also helps articulate colonialism’s complex web of hierarchical subjectivities and oppressive cultural norms.
Kai’s selections:
‘Colonialism’s Clothing: Africa, France, and the Deployment of Fashion’ by Victoria Rovine (Article)
Fashion Theory Volume 24, Issue 6: ‘Decoloniality and Fashion’ by Toby Slade & M. Angela Jansen (Article)
Vénus Noire: Black Women and Colonial Fantasies in Nineteenth-Century France by Robin Mitchell (Book)
‘Fashion and Postcolonial Critique’ by Elke Gaugele & Monica Titton (Article)
‘African Lace-Bark in the Caribbean: The Construction of Race, Class, and Gender’ by Steeve O. Buckridge (Book)
Photo: Man Ray (Emmanuel Radnitzky) Noire et blanche, 1926. © 2020 Man Ray Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.
Our Library provides an ever-expanding collection of resources on ‘race,’ with its ideological and aesthetic influence shaping both history and our modern lives. We are especially looking to diversify our range of authors on these topics. Do you have a recommendation? Send it to our ‘Contact Us’ page.
Objects That Matter: The Bindi
This week’s spotlight from our ‘Objects That Matter’ section comes from the research of guest contributor Kanika Talwar. Kanika is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s of Science in Fashion Media at LIM College in New York City. She primarily focuses on print and digital editorial articles and specializes in fashion, culture, lifestyle, and travel. Kanika is also the Fashion Editor at her university, The Lexington Line. Her studies have helped her hone her appreciation of covering the history of fashion, high fashion, and multicultural fashion. After concluding her studies at LIM College, Kanika hopes to pursue a postgraduate education in fashion journalism and work in editorial.
Here is an excerpt from Kanika’s research on the bindi:
Traditionally, a bindi is red or maroon colored. However, these days, the bindi comes in a wide array of shapes, colors, designs, and materials. It is not restricted to any one South Asian religion or region and, more recently, it has become a form of body art or adornment for the South Asian diaspora – with some matching the color of their outfits with their bindi. The bindi has also been used by South Asians as an extension of everyday makeup.
Read on about the significance of bindi within our collection of culturally rich and often influential (and appropriated) fashion objects.
Photograph: Patel, Tejal. Hindu Wedding Vows. 2007.
Essays & Opinion: ‘The Quiet Eye of the Storm: Sustaining Black Creativity in the Midst of Black Trauma’
Thanks to generous donations, we have been able to expand our ‘Essays & Opinion’ section, bringing in voices that have often been marginalized in the fashion discourse. I was particularly excited to publish this piece by Philip Harris (edited by Shanice Wolters), as he delivers a sobering reflection on what it’s like to be amongst the minority of fashion creatives (i.e. photographers, stylists, makeup artists, etc.) working through this ‘racial reckoning.’
There was silence. 147 miles away from the nearest semblance of civilization. No phone service. Five miles off-road in a remote corner of Nevada called Amargosa Valley, my crew and I approached our location—a giant sand dune—in a Porsche Boxster. The silence of the arid, endless landscape was our sole companion on this sojourn into the wilderness. In the soundless air, I could hear myself exhale for the first time since the world fell apart…
I invite you to read his essay, ‘The Quiet Eye of the Storm,’ a precious moment of respite, as we consider the added emotional labor that Black fashion creatives manage on a day-to-day basis.
Photo Credit: Philip Harris (June 8, 2020). Amargosa Valley, Nevada, USA.
Philip Harris is a fashion photographer, multimedia journalist and content strategist based in New York City. His work celebrates and depicts modern fashion through authentic portrayals of people of color and nonbinary gender identities. A graduate of Howard University, Philip adapts academic approaches to the creative process of commercial art.
That’s it for this week. Stay safe and take care.
Yours in service and solidarity,
Kim Jenkins
Founder, The Fashion and Race Database