Kai Marcel - The Fashion and Race Database™

Jul 2021 12

Blackness & Luxury Fashion

By Kai Marcel | Black Identity & African Diaspora, Concepts & Theory, Visual Culture & The Arts

The relationship between Blackness and luxury fashion, with its long history of exploitation, erasure, and appropriation, is complex and fraught.

Black and white photo. Black model in a sleeveless sequin evening gown with matching headpiece.

Jun 2021 28

Fashioning Race: Deconstructing the Social Construct

By Kai Marcel | Concepts & Theory, Race, Ethnicity & Colonialism, Reading Lists

While race and ethnicity are subjectivities that deeply shape our individual and collective experiences, it must be said that neither are as inherent or “natural” as is suggested by media, pseudoscience, or institutional exercises like government censuses.

White model wearing a Gucci baclava style turtleneck sweater resembling blackface

Jun 2021 14

Fashioning African Textiles

By Kai Marcel | Black Identity & African Diaspora, Visual Culture & The Arts

This week’s reading list highlights five sources from our Library that explore the complex relationship between textiles and the cultures of the African diaspora.

Oladimeji Odunsi. “person with orange and white headdress.” 2018.

May 2021 31

Fashioning Black Dandyism

By Kai Marcel | Black Identity & African Diaspora, Gender & Sexuality, Reading Lists

While some mainstream histories attribute dandyism to white men in the 19th century, there is a much broader reality of Black people (including women and femmes) who have also employed this philosophy and lifestyle of dress, thought, and comportment in their own lives, both historically and within the contemporary moment.

Black and white photo of man in full tuxedo, top hat, monocle, holding a bedazzled cane wearing white gloves.George W. Walker in 'In Dahomey'. By Cavendish Morton platinotype print, 1903.

May 2021 17

Fashioning Black Resistance

By Kai Marcel | Black Identity & African Diaspora, Race, Ethnicity & Colonialism, Reading Lists

Fashion and self-fashioning have remained important and highly visible aspects of organizing and movements of resistance.

Black and white photo of 5 women with their fists raised

May 2021 3

Podcast Episodes Highlighting Black Fashion History

By Kai Marcel | Black Identity & African Diaspora, Visual Culture & The Arts, Black, Black style, Blackness and Beauty, Fashion history

This list features dynamic conversations about Black fashion history, including interviews with Black artists, academics, and cultural commentators.

Woman in white crew neck t-shirt holding smart phone.

Apr 2021 18

Fashioning Black Masculinity

By Kai Marcel | Black Identity & African Diaspora, Reading Lists

While gender and fashion are distinct from one another, their abilities to signify, reflect, and shape each other are significant and often important sites of cultural meaning and definition.

“Portrait of african dancehall music artist - Samini.”

Apr 2021 5

Fashioning Black Femininity

By Kai Marcel | Black Identity & African Diaspora, Reading Lists, Adornment, Aesthetics, African American, Beauty standards, Black feminism, Black style, Blackness and Beauty, Fashion and the Body, Femininity, Glamour, Misogynoir, Racialized body

While gender and fashion are distinct from one another, their abilities to signify, reflect, and shape each other are significant and often important sites of cultural meaning and definition.

braided woman taking photo beside yellow painted wall

Feb 2021 22

Fashioning Black Queer Genders

By Kai Marcel | Black Identity & African Diaspora, Gender & Sexuality, Reading Lists

Fashion and ‘fashioning’ remain crucial parts of gender expression and the performance of identity. Fashion’s potential to signify and convey identity in material form is comparable to the power of words to convey meaning in linguistic form.