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To contribute to this collective history project, send pictures and stories about the older women in your life to americanagefashion@gmail.com. The more information you can include (date, place, etc.), the better.-
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Tag Archives: African American
Regina Anderson Andrews and the Power of Libraries
As a lover of both libraries and theater, it perhaps inevitable that I discovered Regina Anderson Andrews, playwright, actress, salon holder, and librarian in New York City from the 1920s to the 1960s. Anderson (1901-1993) was born in Chicago and … Continue reading
Eunice Johnson–Black Power Fashion
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
Meet Bricktop, International Star
Born in West Virginia in 1894, Ada “Bricktop” Smith gained her nickname because of her red hair. Her family soon moved to Chicago, a center of African American culture, where she started performing full time at age sixteen. She didn’t … Continue reading
Mary Lee Bendolph, Gee’s Bend Quilter
I imagine most textile lovers like myself know about the Gee’s Bend quilters, a remarkable group of Black women who developed their own strikingly modern quilting style in an isolated community in Alabama. They became so famous that their work … Continue reading
Dottie Quinn–A Life in Pants
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
Easter Hat, 1959
Photos by the street photographer Angelo Abruzzo show New York in the fifties and sixties. Similar to the Chicago photographer Vivian Maier, his work was unknown during his lifetime. Later studies stress the fact that the people in his photos … Continue reading
Final Fitting, 1966
This photograph from the Chicago Tribune shows the sewing instructor Essie Cannon, on the right, checking the fit on a coat made by Mary Davis, on the left. Cannon was a teacher at the Midwest Senior Center in Chicago where … Continue reading
Posted in 1960s
Tagged African American, coats, hats/headcoverings, Illinois, sewing
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Lois Alexander and the Black Fashion Museum
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 African American, colors, designers, New York, textile patterns, Washington DC
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Family Road Trip
In honor of summer holidays, I give you this photo of what I’m guessing was a family road trip. It could just be a Sunday outing, but only the son with his tie looks dressed up enough to have come … Continue reading
The Red Hat Society Lives On
Any commentary about older women and fashion in America must address the Red Hat Society, a loosely knit organization of women over fifty. Moreover, the founder of the group, Sue Ellen Cooper, hails from my neck of the woods in … Continue reading
Posted in 2020s
Tagged African American, colors, hats/headcoverings, West Virginia, women's organizations
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