Category Archives: 2000s

Eunice Johnson–Black Power Fashion

Posted on February 20, 2024 by Lynn

It is hard to overestimate the contribution of Eunice Johnson (1916-2010) to African American fashion in the United States.  She and her husband were the founders of Ebony and Jet.  Although she worked as secretary and treasurer for the Johnson … Continue reading →

Posted in 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990, 2000s, 2010s, General | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Dottie Quinn–A Life in Pants

Posted on November 29, 2023 by Lynn

I love being able to follow a woman’s clothing choices from youth to age, sometimes possible when I stumble upon a family photo collection online.  That was the case for Sylvia Dorothy Quinn, known to all as Dottie.  Her husband, … Continue reading →

Posted in 1940s, 1960s, 1980s, 2000s, General | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Oldsters at the Pride Parade

Posted on June 11, 2023 by Lynn

If you associate gay pride events with young men in colorful costumes, then you are probably overlooking the older women who are also part of the parade.  The lesbians who took part in the Gay Rights’ movement of the 1960s … Continue reading →

Posted in 1990, 2000s, 2010s, 2020s | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Aging in Color: Ruth Adler Schnee

Posted on January 22, 2023 by Lynn

Famous textile designer Ruth Adler Schnee (1923-2023) died this month at the age of 99.  She is credited with bringing textile design into the world of midcentury modernism.  The daughter of an antiquarian bookseller and a Bauhaus graduate, her family … Continue reading →

Posted in 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990, 2000s, 2010s | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Lois Alexander and the Black Fashion Museum

Posted on January 16, 2023 by Lynn

Most fashion museums focus on the works of famous designers and the clothes of the well-off women who supported them.  The Black Fashion Museum, which existed from 1979 to 2007, had a different mission.  Under the leadership of the visionary … Continue reading →

Posted in 1970s, 1980s, 1990, 2000s | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

A Faith Ringgold Retrospective

Posted on February 18, 2022 by Lynn

Aren’t there times when you wished you lived in New York City?  I wish I were there now to see the Faith Ringgold retrospective at the New Museum.  It is the first comprehensive US retrospective of her work, beginning with … Continue reading →

Posted in 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990, 2000s, 2010s, 2020s | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Book Review–Bill Cunningham: On the Street

Posted on January 13, 2022 by Lynn

Bill Cunningham, the famous fashion photographer, liked to claim that he wasn’t a photographer at all.  Instead he was a columnist who wrote with pictures.  There is something to this statement.  The story goes that he first documented what he … Continue reading →

Posted in 1970s, 1980s, 1990, 2000s, 2010s | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Aminah Robinson–Life into Art

Posted on February 27, 2021 by Lynn

This stunning piece is a good introduction into the work of Columbus, Ohio artist Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson (1940-2015).  Using the materials of daily life—paper, pencils, fabric, trim, and buttons, she creates stunning compositions.  The mixed media creation above serves … Continue reading →

Posted in 2000s, 2010s | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Black Legends in Blackglama

Posted on July 12, 2019 by Lynn

I never understood the wording of these once ubiquitous ads for mink coats.  The people pictured in the ads were contemporary celebrities—legends in their own time.  To underscore that fact, their names were never mentioned in the photo.  Surely they … Continue reading →

Posted in 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990, 2000s, 2010s | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Book Review: Nomadland by Jessica Bruder

Posted on April 5, 2019 by Lynn

What are your options if you are old and poor in America? That’s a question examined in Jessica Bruder’s bracing book, Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century.  She traces the journeys of Americans living in trailers and campers who … Continue reading →

Posted in 2000s, 2010s | 3 Comments