Of Another Fashion

This is a photograph of my grandmother, Manuela Lizarraga, taken in the market of Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico in the late 1950s. I think that she probably made this dress herself since she came from a humble family with several children. Her views on fashion are more about utility - even the dress she is wearing in the picture is about utility. However, my grandmother, to this day, loves to wear skirts and dresses and I have never seen her wearing pants. I love seeing this photograph of my Mama Nela (as all her grandchildren call her) because it reveals her strong and undeniably sassy character! 

Submitted by Kareli Lizarraga (Philadelphia, PA)

This is a photo of my mother, Luz Celenia Perez-Velez in 1952. It was probably shot in a photo studio in the Bronx, New York. She was born in Utuado, Puerto Rico in 1936 so she would have been about 16 years old in this photo. My mother probably sent this photo to him in Korea while they were married and my father carried it around with him until he died in 2008. 

I love this picture because her smile is brilliant and full of promise. What is amazing about this photograph is the transformation of a girl who was orphaned at age six and raised by an assortment of extended family, friends, and strangers, with very little education and in extreme poverty. She was the youngest of six kids, and once her brothers made their way to New York, they struggled to bring her there. While her trip was to New York was lonely and frightening, she was enormously grateful to them for bringing her to New York. Just two years after arriving, in her own words, she “blossomed”. 

The dress probably came from a factory that her brother owned called Margie Designs. She learned English quickly, and until she died loved fashion. She had an eye for beautiful and classic designs, and looked beautiful each time she stepped outside into the world. She gave all of us our love of fashion, design, and clean lines. I miss her every day.

Submitted by Diana Velez (Brooklyn, NY)

WHY CREATE A TOTE BAG?

There are many reasons (both good and unavoidable) why OF ANOTHER FASHION is a digital archive. One of the best reasons it’s digital is because I wanted it to be accessible to as many people as possible, no matter their geographic location and limitations. But in my wildest thoughts about this project, I never imagined it would reach as many people in as many places as it does. Incredibly, OF ANOTHER FASHION now has over 104,000 followers! I’m overwhelmed and totally grateful to you for following, contributing, and sharing this archive. Please continue to do so!

For awhile now, I’ve wanted to find a way to materially connect audiences to the archive and to each other (including myself!) as well as to give this digital archive a material presence in the real world. This is difficult, as I’ve noted elsewhere, given the general curatorial and critical neglect of women of color’s histories and experiences with regard to fashion. This is one of the reasons why mounting a physical exhibition is extremely challenging.

Despite or rather because of these challenges, I wanted to mark this milestone of 104,000 followers by celebrating the online community that OF ANOTHER FASHION has brought together and which it continues to bring together. Your support underscores the significance of women of color’s fashion histories and practices. And your submissions evidence that style and beauty of another fashion deserves to be preserved, studied, and celebrated.

HOW TO BUY, AND HOW MUCH?

Tote bags (big and sturdy enough for books, groceries, and farmer’s market finds) are $10 each (plus $2 for shipping). You can buy them from my Etsy shop. Please note that I have a limited supply. (OF ANOTHER FASHION has also been featured on the ETSY blog!) 

Proceeds will go towards redesigning this site so that it will be an even better online resource for the study of women of color’s fashion histories. Redesign plans include but aren’t limited to: bigger photos; a user-friendly searchable database by year, garment, race, theme, etc; and smart academic and popular essays that help to illuminate and expand the social, material, cultural, and political histories of the lives represented on this site.

WIN A TOTE!

Congratulations to Sharon K. of Brooklyn, NY for winning our Tote Bag Giveaway!

I previously dubbed Lucille Baldwin Brown the loveliest librarian ever. Vivian Gordon Harsh, the woman above, is proving that librarians are their own category of beautiful. Harsh was the first African American librarian to work at the Chicago Public Library. She began her career at the Chicago Public Library in 1924. She studied library science at Simmons College and the University of Chicago.

Credit: The Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature is housed at the Chicago Public Library Woodson Regional Branch

Submitted by Terah Edun

This is Mary F. Clifford, a student at Storer College in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia (1906). I think, although I’m not sure, that this is the daughter of J.R. Clifford, West Virginia’s first African American attorney, and original member of the Niagara Movement.

According to this source, Clifford’s daughter Mary delivered the credo at the Harper’s Ferry meeting of the Niagara Movement in 1906. The name and location are right, so it’s possible that the Mary Clifford in the photograph is Clifford’s daughter. Either way, her outfit is lovely.

Submitted by Molly Dolan, Digital Initiatives and Scholarly Communications Librarian at West Virginia University Libraries (Morgantown, West Virginia)

Maybe the most stylish librarian ever - check out that fascinator! Lucille Baldwin Brown was the first Black public county librarian in Tallahassee, Florida. This photograph is part of the collection at the State Library and Archives of Florida.

This amazing photograph is of USO performers for African American servicemen in World War II. The photograph was taken in Pensacola, Florida and is part of the State Library and Archives of Florida.

This family portrait was taken in 1900 in Gainesville, Florida. It’s part of a collection at the State Library and Archives of Florida.

It’s 1956 in San Francisco and this is my grandmother, Encar Villanueva. She’s standing next my grandfather’s cadillac. Today, my grandmother or lola (in Tagalog) lives in a nursing home in San Francisco in the late stages of Alzheimer’s. But when this photo was taken, her personality was very strong. Because she was the eldest of her sisters and a stay-at-home mother raising two boys, she definitely was the disciplinarian in the home. (My grandpa was often overseas working as a cook for the US Navy).  Although Lola was opinionated and religious, she always knew how to have a good time and throw a great party. She often had her friends over for food, dancing, and praying the rosary - like any good Filipino Catholic.

Her style was always on-trend. In all her pictures with her girlfriends, church friends, relatives, grandma Encar always stood out. She was never scared of wearing bright colors and accessorizing her outfits with jewelry, bright purses or shoes. As a child I remember going through closets (seven closets to be exact) of her clothes, jewelry, shoes, coats and purses. I still have a number of things of hers to this day. She had impeccable style.

In 2011, I wrote a play about my grandmother and have performed it several times as a one woman show called Forgetting the Details.

Submitted by Nicole Maxali (San Francisco, CA)

Mexican American bridesmaids on car in `the flats’, 1938.

Credit: Los Angeles Public Library

This is a photo of my lovely great-aunt, Helen Seate Cooke. It’s hard to tell when it was taken - she looks young, but she always looked young. :) The flowers in her hair and smile make her seem all the more adorable and youthful. I think this photo was taken in Nottoway County, Virginia, where she spent time teaching. This is my favorite photo of her.

Submitted by Benae Mosby (Washington, D.C.)

In 1966, after studying at the University of Hawaii for two years, my mom Sumiko Carroll (née Namihira) went back to Tokyo, intending to enroll in a Japanese university. However, soon after returning home, she read a 2-line ad in the Japan Times (an English language newspaper), seeking flight attendants for Northwest Orient Airlines. Mom says, “I didn’t think I would get the job. I went mostly because I wanted to see who else would show up, but when I got there with my resumé, I was the only one there!” What followed were 5 days of tests, a different subject for each day, including English and math. “On the last day was an interview for the three of us who passed. We were told to pack and prepare to fly to Minnesota in two weeks for training.

After working for Northwest Orient for a year, Mom was hired by Pan American World Airways. Pan Am intended to compete with Japan Airlines carrying an ever-increasing number of Japanese travelers. The hiring was done in Tokyo, although Mom was based in Honolulu. She says the Asian flight attendants of Northwest Airlines worked the Asian routes only but Pan Am opened up the world to them. Mom says when she read “Northwest is hiring stewardesses. Bring resume,” she was under the height requirement, over the weight limit, and so plain! That was back when they hired the most beautiful girls, just gorgeous, most of them looked like models. But I was fluent in both English and Japanese, and that’s why they hired me.” Personally, I think they also hired her because Mom had a reputation for working hard - her nickname was “Little Tiger.”

Mom is seated in the center. From left to right, the other women are Motoko Hanyū, Hisako Kobayashi, Kyoko Ōtake, and Miyako Kuroda.

Today, my mom is a member of World Wings International. She also contributed a photo and a memory written on a 3”x5” index card to the Airborne Dreams exhibit, and recently read Christine Yano’s book of the same name. 

Submitted by MK Carroll (Honolulu, HI).

Click here and here for more photos from Airborne Dreams.

This is my grandmother Dominga Villegas in Nebraska. There are some other pictures of her and my grandfather picking potatoes in that field behind her. I am assuming this is either prior to or after harvesting some potatoes. I admire her confidence and the bad ass look in her eye in this picture. She is an amazing woman.

Submitted by Dagny Villegas (Indianapolis, IN).

This is a picture of my grandmother, Sachiko Hamilton (R), at age 15 and her cousin. It was taken in Japan in July 1944. Several years later, she would meet her first husband, Ernest Ford, Sr. (an African American man), at an army base in Japan. They married soon after and she immigrated to Detroit where she was a seamstress. She worked for Chrysler for 30 years sewing automobile seats together. 

I’m assuming the stamp on the picture above is the name of the photographer. She made the dress that she was wearing - most of the clothing that she made had patterns on them.

Submitted by Chanel Hamilton (Ann Arbor, MI)

This is my great grandmother, Maria Luisa Merchan Gracia, at age 40 in Venezuela in the late 1930s. 

Submitted by CJ (Chicago, IL).

In the 1930s, Dorothea Lange took a large series of photographs of migrant workers throughout the U.S. including in California, Texas, Oklahoma, and Mississippi. The most famous of these images is “Migrant Mother”. 

The above photo portrays migrant mothers as well. These Mexican women were photographed on the U.S.-Mexico border in California.  

Source: LIbrary of Congress

Submitted by Corianne Wilson (Orem, UT).

These two Asian American dancers are performing at San Francisco’s premiere nightclub in the 1930s called Forbidden City. While the club was Chinese-themed, the performers themselves were not all Chinese American. Some were Japanese American and Filipino American. (Click the “Forbidden City” tag at the bottom to see more.)

Less than a decade after this photo was taken, all of the Japanese American performers would be interned under Executive Order 9066. To see more internment photos, click on the “1940s” tag or the “Japanese American” tag - note: internment images will include both these tags. 

Source: Museum of Performance and Design, Performing Arts Library, University of California

Lisa Wong Macabasco of Hyphen Magazine just posted this interview with me as a follow-up to their recent feature story about OF ANOTHER FASHION. The interview took place about a year or so ago but it gives some interesting background on OF ANOTHER FASHION. 

THANK YOU, HYPHEN MAGAZINE, FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

And please, dear readers, support this amazing independent Asian American arts, culture, and politics magazine. (You can start by buying the current issue - The Survival Issue - which has the 2-page spread on OF ANOTHER FASHION!)

I’m so excited to announce that a feature story on OF ANOTHER FASHION is in the current issue of Hyphen Magazine, the premier Asian American arts, culture, and politics magazine. It should be on newsstands soon, probably at independent bookstores. Or, you can buy a copy from their website. 

I just got an email with this link in which they preview the story. I’m really pleased that they chose the photo of my mom as a lead-in to the preview - it’s one of my favorite photos of her and really exemplifies, in many ways, where OF ANOTHER FASHION began:
my mom’s style-y ways!

Please support this independent magazine - and also, some contributors may find that their amazing photos and stories have also been featured! In the last year or so of OF ANOTHER FASHION’s existence, I’ve had many moments in which I’ve thought: I can’t believe this has gotten so big! This is another moment and I’m so grateful.

This fabulous woman is my paternal grandmother, Minerva Turner (1924- 1992). She owned her own hair salon/”wig clinic” in Chicago in the ’60s, and this hair piece is one of her many amazing creations. I’m pretty sure she made the coat as well. She was fiercely Independent - much to the dismay of two of her husbands, both of whom wound up divorcing her and taking the kids. My mother told me that my father, also deceased, told her that it was because they wanted a wife that would stay at home, but she refused to give up her dream of being a self-supporting business owner. He followed in her footsteps and became a hairstylist. I’ve also been told that on a major shopping trip to New York after her business took off, she was denied entry into the high-end shops because they didn’t “serve her kind.” She had a hard life, but she never gave up on her dream, her style, or her hard partying ways. I am so incredibly proud of her.

Submitted by Ariel Wolf (New York, NY)

These are my grandparents, Roberto and Dominga Villegas. My grandfather is in uniform; he fought in World War II. I adore my grandmother’s dress in this photo and wish that I had some more information regarding it.

From Roberto Villegas, Jr. (Dagny’s father): The picture was taken on January 31, 1944. It was taken in a photo shop on Main Street in Weslaco, Texas across from the church where they were married. They walked across the street after the ceremony. Dad was on leave from the Army and my grandmother, Mamma Piedad took Mom and Dad to San Juan de Arc Catholic Church on Main Street on that day to get married. This is their wedding photo. The dress was purchased at Valdez Clothing Store on Main Street in Weslaco. Valdez was a small local store. This means that he was 17 and she was 16 when the picture was taken. Three years later on January 25, 1947, I was born. 

Submitted by Dagny Villegas (Indianapolis, IN)

This is a photo of my grandmother, Louise Seate Bowie, with her husband Clyde Bowie. They are pictured after an outing in Byrd Park in Richmond, Virginia (ca. 1940s). This is one of few photos I’ve seen of the two of them together, and I know few details about their relationship. I like to imagine that they are genuinely in love, and that she’s smiling because he whispered a joke in her ear just before the photo was taken.

It’s likely that the clothes are store-bought because my family has always loved the shopping experience.

Submitted by Benae Mosby (Washington, D.C.)

This photograph is titled “Elks Fashion Show, 1956” but it’s odd to me that all the women are in bathing suits. I haven’t seen too many fashion shows in which bathing suits are the primary or exclusive garment featured. My guess is that this was really a local beauty pageant.

Source: H. Councill Trenholm State Technical College archive in Alabama.

A portrait of an African American woman in Victorian fashion. My guess is that this photograph was taken sometime in the 1860s when necklines rose and the bustle was more noticeable. Fashion historians have also observed that skirt fronts flattened out (also drawing more attention to the bustle) from the 1850s to the 1860s.

There’s no information about the woman but from the photograph, we can speculate that she’s quite privileged relative to other African American women in this period (the Civil War era). Her dress and fan (a symbol of leisure) as well as the fact of the portrait itself are all indications that she was well-off - again, in relation to most other African American women.  

Addendum: OF ANOTHER FASHION readers demonstrate, once again, the brilliance of social media and collaborative knowledge production. Thank you all for pointing me to the Harper Collection at Florida Memory Project where this photograph (and so many more) are archived. In addition to learning about the photographer, Alvan S. Harper, I learned that the photograph was taken after the 1880s and the dresses and accessories were likely borrowed from Harper’s studio.

This woman might be the Miami-based model named Elnita. The biographical information is unclear. However, the description of the photo clearly states that the swimsuit - manufactured by Alix of Miami - is inspired by France and the “Far East.” The photo was taken on a Dade County beach called Matheson Hammock in 1959. Personally, I’d LOVE to have this swimsuit now - the “Far East” inspiration, notwithstanding.

Credit: State Library and Archives of Florida, Department of Commerce Collection

Wonderful news, friends! OF ANOTHER FASHION is now catalogued in WorldCat.org, the world’s largest library catalog. This means that OF ANOTHER FASHION is searchable not only on the Internet but also in library databases around the world, making the images and stories many of you have shared accessible to students and scholars who are interested in photography, women’s history, fashion, race, material culture, digital history projects, and more! This goes a long way, I hope, in helping to draw more critical attention to the fashion histories of women of color.

Thank you all for subscribing, submitting, and supporting OF ANOTHER FASHION! Now that we have a global audience, please help me keep this project going by submitting photos and stories and letting other people know to do the same! 

This is a photo of my mother in 1987 as a college student in Kiev. A global nomad, she grew up in Nepal, lived in Russia and other parts of Europe before settling down and raising a family in the U.S. (where she moved in 1989). Her unique style has always involved clothing and accesories she collected from traveling.

In this picture, she is wearing a thick handwoven sweater from Nepal, the kind sold by locals for the Himalayan climate, but it definitely served its purpose in the Russian winter! The shoes are from Berlin, the red cotton scarf is Tibetan, and the pants are also from Nepal. As a college student with a tight budget, she managed to be resourceful and fashionable at once, adapting cheap items she could buy back home for western styles (i.e. the classic tight pants/baggy sweater 80s trend in this picture). Her style has always been unique yet comfortable and practical, as you can see with this outfit.

Submitted by Rebecca John (Ithaca, NY).

This woman - displaying swagger before it became a trendy term! - is a model in a fashion show at the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) in Tallahassee (ca 1985).

Credit: State Library and Archives of Florida; The Deborah Thomas Collection

Everything about Lucy Fonseca (L) from her hair to her socks/sandal footwear combination is striking to me. Here she is posing with Ramona Fonseca (C) and Annie Madalena (R) in 1943. 

This is Miss University of Chicago 1954, Janice Porter. Longtime Of Another Fashion followers might recall that I posted another photo of the beauty queen a few months ago. You can see that one here.

Submitted by Lynn Mally (Irvine, CA).

Rosie Albrann and Ramona Fonseca are part of a long women’s labor and fashion history that extends back to the turn of the 20th century. These garment workers are from the Barenveld Shirt Factory in San Fernando, California (ca. 1943). Their placards read: “We want a union.” and “We want a free country too.”

Love it.

This gorgeous photo of a 1963 Harlem fashion show is one of the many images on display at the soon-to-open exhibition, Posing Beauty In African American Culture which has been traveling throughout the country over the last year or so. The exhibition is curated by Deborah Willis, Professor and Chair of the Photography and Imaging Department at NYU. Willis’ work is amazing and this exhibition looks fabulous - if you’re in the Los Angeles area, do check it out. If you’re not in the area and can’t wait for the exhibition to open near you, you can buy the  book by the same name. The New York Times raves:

With “Posing Beauty,” Willis has for­ever changed the conversation about beauty in American life. After centuries of exclusion and segregation in which African-­American beauty existed on the margins of the culture, Willis offers readers a thoughtful and nuanced consideration of the relationship of beauty and power. She invites us to marvel at the glamour and elegance contained in the photographs, and in the process instructs us on how to expand the definition of beauty within our national imagination.

To expand the definition of beauty within our national imagination. An exhibition after my own heart.

Photo credits: Top photo by Leonard Freed taken in 1963, bottom photo “Harlem, 1970” by Anthony Barboza.

Gloria Valdez (L) and Viola Soto (R) are standing with a Mexican American World War II veteran, Ed Moreno (ca. 1945). It strikes me that Soto’s dress looks so much like a wrap dress, a design generally credited to Diane von Furstenberg who is said to have “invented” the wrap dress in 1973. Soto’s dress is, at the very least, a predecessor of von Furstenberg’s iconic wrap dress.

Credit: Los Angeles Public Library

My friend Elissa collects old photographs, and sent me a packet. This is one of the ones that stood out as relevant for your blog. Unfortunately I have no information about who the people are in the pictures, where they were taken, or when. Elissa thinks she found them at a flea market in Chelsea.

Submitted by Lauren Jade Martin (Reading, PA).

Curator’s Note: The car has long signified the notion of “hitting the road” and for Americans, the democratic ideals of freedom, mobility, and masculinity. (In contrast, the home is the visual sign of domesticity and femininity.) This is the reason I always love seeing photos of women posing with their own cars. I’m going to guess from the dresses that the photo was taken in the late 1930s/early 1940s. What do you think - am I way off?

Contestants in the American Legion Pageant at Lincoln Colonnade (ca. 1947).

Credit:Addison N. Scurlock. Scurlock Studio Records, ca. 1905-1994, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.

This is my grandma in the mid to late 1950s in Chicago. She’s wearing store-bought clothes, probably purchased from either I Magnin or Bullocks department stores, where she worked. My grandma passed away in January 2011.

Submitted by N. D. (Los Angeles, CA).

In May 1955, twenty-five women who were injured by the atomic bomb the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 were flown to New York to undergo reconstructive surgery. The women became known in the press as the “Hiroshima Maidens.” Many of these women, including Tadako Emori, Yoshie Enokawa, Hideko Hirata, and Toyoko Morita were gifted dressmakers who spent their time in the U.S. refining their sewing and business skills, selling their designs, and creating a transnational name for themselves among American consumers.

Morita enrolled in the Parsons School of Design and worked two days each week at the posh department store, Bergdorf Goodman. After earning her degree from Parsons, she returned to Japan to open up her own design company, Toyo Haute Couture. The company was highly successful. Later in her career, Morita also taught dressmaking classes. In the above photo, Morita is standing in front of her shop, third from the left. The other women pictured are her employees, many of whom were disabled (a hiring policy she implemented as a result of her own experience.)

To find out more about the Hiroshima Maidens, see this link and also David Serlin’s chapter on the Hiroshima Maidens in his book, Replaceable You: Engineering the Body in Postwar America (University of Chicago Press, 2004) in which he discusses the relations of injury and beauty. Rodney Barker also wrote a biography about them called, The Hiroshima Maidens: A Story of Courage, Compassion, and Survival (Viking Press 1985).

Thanks go to Thy Phu (Ontario, Canada) for cluing me to this intriguing history of fashion, war, reconstruction, and New York City’s own Parsons School of Design.

Unfortunately, there’s no identifying information regarding this photo but I couldn’t resist including her amazing hat in this archive. The woman is likely from Monrovia, California and the photo was taken in 1940.

Credit: Los Angeles Public Library

I recently posted this photo on my own blog and thought it was a nice fit for Of Another Fashion as well. I found the photo on the Internet but unfortunately my inquiries about the woman pictured or the date haven’t been successful. Judging by her bike and clothing I’d guess this was taken in the 1940s.

Submitted by Zoë Leverant (San Francisco, CA).

Curator’s note: I stand corrected. What I thought was a stand for a stationary bike is, in fact, a kickstand - as readers as well as the donor of the photo have pointed out to me. But my point remains, riding a bike in a mid-length pencil skirt? A great example of the mutual non-exclusivity of fashion and fitness.

More from the donor: Also that’s just a kickstand on the back wheel -  many of them were double-sided and very sturdy back in the day. Judging by the brake cabling, fenders, rear rack and front lamp, she was definitely on her way to ride.

Of Another Fashion will be on a summer break for most of this week, beginning August 2. I will be checking email intermittently so please take this short break as an opportunity to send in those photos you’ve been meaning to submit! (My queue is running low!)

The basics on submission: send me hi-res scans of your photos with a brief description of the who/what/where of the photo - whatever you know is fine! Make it as personal as possible. Finally, for the donor information: send me your full name and city/state. For more detailed instructions, including where to email, see this link.

During New York City’s heat wave earlier this week, I saw many variations of this outfit: the bare midriff and the mini skirt put together in such a way that was more sweet than saucy. Call Esther Rivera a fashion forerunner then - here she is modeling her new summer outfit in 1946.

Credit: Los Angeles Public Library