Category: Exploring the Past

Fashion is a relatively modern concept, most often associated with Euro-American histories of dress. However, well before the European invasions of the Americas, Indigenous American societies developed sophisticated approaches to garment making and cultural attention to dress every bit as nuanced as those of societies from the other side of the Atlantic. Perhaps the greatest material legacy of this rich costume history survives in the Andes region of South America.

Writing this text was a significant and important challenge for me, as a Black Brazilian woman and academic, used to impersonal writing.

When you think of fashion, you might not think of politics.

From Victorian-era hats to contemporary veils, the transnational historical evolution of women’s head coverings both reflects fashion and creates it.