Of Another Fashion

This is a photograph of my grandmother, Manuela Lizarraga, taken in the market of Mazatlan,...

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 19:18:12 -0500

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 my mother, Barbara Taylor Jewell, who passed away on...

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 07:33:00 -0500

This is my mother, Barbara Taylor Jewell, who passed away on November 2, 2011. The photo was taken at a dance held by Delta Sigma Theta (my mother’s sorority) and their “brother” fraternity Omega Psi Phi at Clark College in Atlanta. My mother, who made the dress herself, was voted Miss Omega of 1951. We found the corsage among her things after she died.

Submitted by Joseph O. Jewell (College Station, TX)

This is a photo of my mother, Luz Celenia Perez-Velez in 1952. It was probably shot in a photo...

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 08:18:15 -0400

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)

OF ANOTHER FASHION Has 104,000 Followers ... Let's Celebrate with a Tote Bag! (You can win one)

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 08:38:00 -0400

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!

This is my mother, Barbara Taylor Jewell, who passed away in...

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 09:44:00 -0400

This is my mother, Barbara Taylor Jewell, who passed away in November. The photo was taken in 1947 when she was a freshman entering Clark College (now Clark-Atlanta University) in Atlanta, Georgia. The photographer liked my mother’s photo and the “unusual” hairstyle she styled herself. He asked if he could use her photo as one of his samples. My grandmother, who insisted on meeting him first, approved.

Submitted by Joseph O. Jewell (College Station, TX)

This is my grandmother, Dominga Villegas (in the foreground) and...

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 15:10:43 -0400

This is my grandmother, Dominga Villegas (in the foreground) and “Mama Piedad” (in the background). I am not sure how/if they’re related. One of the houses behind them is the home that my father was born in, in Weslaco Texas. There was no running water, no electricity and they had a pump and an outhouse in the backyard. According to my father, the street was a dirt road back then and the Mexicans lived on one side of town and white people lived on the other side. The town was segregated. They may have been poor but my grandmother looks amazingly beautiful and confident in this photo.

Submitted by Dagny Villegas (Indianapolis, IN).

Hope to see many of you this Saturday afternoon in NYC! Please...

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 07:04:00 -0400

Hope to see many of you this Saturday afternoon in NYC! Please bring photos and stories to share! For more information, click here.

We found this when we were going through my grandma’s photos...

Fri, 25 May 2012 22:44:00 -0400

We found this when we were going through my grandma’s photos (after she passed away on April 29, 2012 at the age of 98). It’s taken in Los Angeles. I forgot about this photo but it’s one of my favorites. It was taken in the 1930s and the dress was likely made by my grandma, like a lot of her clothes.

Submitted by Cheryl Motoyama (Santa Ana, California).

A promotional photograph of dancer and musical comedy star Aida...

Thu, 10 May 2012 15:20:00 -0400

A promotional photograph of dancer and musical comedy star Aida Overton Walker, who as some of you may recall was credited with popularizing the cakewalk.

Credit: Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library

Submitted by Lynn Mally (Irvine, CA)

Alice Miyeko Odama (July 16, 1913 - April 29, 2012) OF ANOTHER...

Thu, 03 May 2012 18:57:00 -0400

Alice Miyeko Odama (July 16, 1913 - April 29, 2012)

OF ANOTHER FASHION wishes to extend our sincere condolences to Cheryl Motoyama and her family on the recent passing of Alice Miyeko Odama. Longtime subscribers of OF ANOTHER FASHION know that Cheryl has generously shared numerous photos and some truly amazing stories of her beautiful family and especially her lovely grandmother.

The picture above is not only one of my favorites of “the Japanese movie star” Alice Odama (nee Ishizaki) but one of my favorites of the entire collection.

For more of Ms. Odama, click the #AliceOdama tag at the bottom.

I previously dubbed Lucille Baldwin Brown the loveliest librarian ever. Vivian Gordon Harsh, the...

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 08:30:00 -0400

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...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 08:15:28 -0500

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...

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 08:38:05 -0500

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...

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 08:30:00 -0500

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...

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 08:37:52 -0500

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...

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:30:06 -0500

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

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:30:00 -0500

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...

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:30:05 -0500

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...

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 08:30:00 -0500

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...

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:26:11 -0500

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).