Tag Archives: blackness
Mary Sibande
Inspired by the explorations of race, gender and sexuality in the work of American artists Kara Walker and Cindy Sherman, and London-based Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare, Mary cast her own body in fibreglass and silicone to create Sophie. She then … Continue reading
LINKAGE: “Fear of a Black Venus”
I’m thrilled that my friend and colleague Isabel Molina Guzman has entered the blogosphere with Color (Re)adjustment, an extension of her valuable scholarship on race and representational politics. In her words, Color (Re)Adjustment (an homage to the late great filmmaker … Continue reading
Radio Silence + Some Noise
Apologies for the recent radio silence — I’m suffering a terrific head cold as well as ever-anxious anticipation for my manuscript workshop this week. Being ill has been something of a relief, quite frankly, as it feels like a legitimate … Continue reading
PICTURING POLITICS: On “Pride In His Work”
This past Monday, in what brings nothing less than Driving Miss Daisy most prominently to mind, the Sartorialist posted a photograph from his book tour, featuring his (unnamed) driver in San Francisco. In his commentary, the Sartorialist remarks: “As you … Continue reading
Filed under FASHIONING RACE, STYLE POLICE & STYLE GURUS
PUBLICATION: Monica Miller on Slaves To Fashion
Duke University Press’s new release, Monica Miller’s Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, promises to appear on all my future syllabi, no matter the course. Read Miller’s illuminating essay about the book’s core concepts … Continue reading
Blackface, and the Violence of Revulsion
This post is supposed to be about the latest occurrences of blackface in fashion — specifically, the 14-page editorial featuring Lara Stone, a white Dutch model, painted black and shot by Steven Klein for the October 2009 issue of French … Continue reading
Filed under FASHIONING RACE
LINKAGE: The Color of Beauty
Naomi Campbell rightly argues that the all-black Italian Vogue was an inadequate gesture: “That made some noise but, unfortunately, we are the same as before. People, in the panic of recession, don’t dare to put a girl of color in … Continue reading
Filed under FASHIONING RACE, LINKAGE, ON BEAUTY
LINKAGE: Sartorial Politics, Political Follies
(Photo: Getty Images, 16 August 2009) The sartorial discourse around the Obamas continues to illuminate the treacherous claims shaping and disciplining “American” civic bodies. Over at the National Review, former US assistant attorney general Andy McCarthy disingenuously wonders, “I’ve noticed … Continue reading
Filed under FASHIONING RACE, LINKAGE
FILM/TEACHING: Good Hair (and a Lesson Plan)
In my fashion course I inevitably assign Kobena Mercer’s “Black Hair/Style Politics,” sometimes with selections from Lisa Jones’s Bulletproof Diva and Ayana Boyd and Lori Tharps’s Hair Story, sometimes with Angela Davis’s “Afro-Images: Politics, Fashion, and Nostalgia,” in which Davis … Continue reading
Filed under FASHIONING RACE, IN THE CLASSROOM, ON BEAUTY
