Redressing History: In which, I try to make my school essays count for something...

This might be a little unorthodox for a blog, but I decided to add a few of my university essays (with some edits). This one was a response to the following Walter Benjamin quote: “The confrontation with the fashions of previous generations is a matter of far greater importance than we ordinarily suppose. And one of the most significant aspects of historical costuming is that [...] it undertakes such a confrontation [...] The question of costume reaches deep into the life of art and poetry, where fashion is at once preserved and overcome” (Benjamin, 2002, p. 65) Benjamin is not really one of my favourites, but he had some interesting ideas. I leaned on my love of historical fashion and many of my Instagram and YouTube faves.

Redressing History

Introduction - Clothing and fashion have served many purposes over the course of human history. There is a long tradition of both oppression and erasure exercised through dress on countless marginalised people over the millenia, but an equally long history of rebellion, assertion, and joyful celebration of identity through fashion from those same individuals and cultures. In the following pages, I will attempt to explore the way people with marginalised identities are using historical, traditional, and folk fashion to connect with ancestors and culture, and overcome whitewashed narratives of history, in the present day. By resurrecting bygone fashions, they are directly confronting our past, bringing history into conversation with the present, preserving it and overcoming ideologies of the past. (Benjamin, 2002, p. 65)

Simulating Identity - There is a long held understanding of the transformative power of dress and its ability to allow us to transcend our circumstances. In Europe and North America, we grow up learning stories like that of Cinderella, in which someone dons a magical garment in order to leave behind penury and degradation for a new life of prosperity and triumph.

Perhaps this is why dominant cultures so often try to rigorously control the way people dress, especially anyone who is deemed to be outside of what is normal or acceptable in that culture. “This is the familiar world, the world of whiteness, as a world we know implicitly. Colonialism makes the world ‘white’, which is of course a world ‘ready’ for certain kinds of bodies.” (Ahmed, 2006, p. 111) Scholar Sarah Ahmed was speaking about racism as a product of colonialism, but I would argue that many forms of homogeneity are birthed or exacerbated by colonisation. In order to maintain cultural superiority, a dominant group may impose identifying dress on a marginalised community such as coercing Jews to wear a judenhut, a tall, conical hat, in the 13th century, or requiring black women in Latin America to cover their hair in a headwrap. (Gottheil, Deutsch, 2002, p. 375) This might be seen as preserving cultural distinctions, however egregious the manner of that preservation, but the truth is, such strictures can eventually result in the marginalised culture feeling compelled to give up all forms of identifying dress, legally required or culturally influenced, in order to blend into the dominant culture and escape at least a measure of the stigma. “The suggestion advanced here is that the person who has not inherited a part in such a… society is forced to act a part instead, possibly by moving away, taking on a new name and adopting a simulated identity.” (Tseëlon, 2001, p. 62, my emphasis) This simulated identity often includes the dress of the dominant culture, in whole or in part.

Fig. 1. Bailey-Basayeva in Eastern European scarf (2021)

In Masquerade and Identities : Essays on Gender, Sexuality and Marginality, Efrat Tseelon wrote eloquently on the method of many disenfranchised individuals, as actors, attempting to perform their way into the dominant society, as best they were able (Tseelon, 2001). Often this performance was carried out through clothing. “For the sake of ease of life, many of our ancestors and family… completely let go of their folk traditions and folk way of dressing.” (Bailey-Basayeva, 2021, 0:55) Others, people who might now be identified as LGBTQIA, as well as BIPOC, avoided adopting clothing that might have been more comfortable or self-expressive for them, in order to avoid notice. In the 19th century , a person who knew about and was accepting of another person’s identity, despite any efforts at disguise, was called “wise”, but public avowals of identity were potentially very dangerous. (Tseelon, 2001, p. 60)

Phyllis Webstad, the director of the Orange Shirt Society, detailed the experience that inspired the now famous project. "Somehow my granny managed to buy me a new outfit to go to the Mission school. I remember… picking out a shiny orange shirt. It… was so bright and exciting – just like I felt to be going to school… When I got to the Mission, they stripped me, and took away my clothes, including the orange shirt! I never wore it again. I didn’t understand why they wouldn’t give it back to me, it was mine! The colour orange has always reminded me of that and how my feelings didn’t matter, how no one cared and how I felt like I was worth nothing." (Webstad)

As poignant and significant as stories like this are, and as necessary as it is for justice to be delivered, it is a mistake for us to look at marginalised identities, including our own, solely from this perspective. For as long as there has been persecution based on dress and homogenization to avoid it, there has been resistance, often joyful, beautiful, self-expressive resistance. So many stories, so many voices have been almost erased from the history of humanity, but those voices are still there if we listen for them.

Asserting Identity - In recent years, I have noticed a growing number of individuals asserting their identities through historical, traditional, and folk dress. Sarah Ahmed and Efrat Tseelon wrote about the manner in which you are orientated in the world toward a dominant narrative, performing to blend in, touching on some of the difficulties that minorities experience (Ahmed, 2006, Tseelon, 2001). But what if you could choose to orient yourself toward your own identity? What if your performance was, not to blend in, but to stand out as who you are? What if, instead of cultural appropriation, you engaged in a cultural reclamation? These remarkable history and culture enthusiasts are reframing their relationship both to our modern, dominant culture and to history as we have been taught it. They are embracing a kind of nostalgia, not as popular culture defines it, but more like Svetlana Boym’s notion of nostalgia as a “relationship” between individuals and broader countries and cultures. A “personal and collective memory. While futuristic utopias might be out of fashion, nostalgia itself has a utopian dimension...The nostalgic feels stifled within the conventional confines of time and space.” (Boym, 2011) There is still a strong awareness of the injustices of the past and present but a stark refusal to be defined by them.

Jewish historical costumer, V, created the YouTube channel the Snappy Dragon, in part, to address the lack of representation of Jewish individuals in historical costuming circles. Her channel discusses Jewish historical figures, clothing trends, and the origin of antisemitic tropes and stereotypes. A great deal of V’s costume work and videos deal specifically with traditionally Jewish clothing and Jewish erasure from history, especially the Middle Ages. For V, historical costume is a way to both enjoy history and fashion, and to celebrate her identity as a modern, Jewish woman, and her connection to her European ancestors.

Fig. 2. V in Jewish veil (2020)

Living historian Cheney McKnight wears historical clothing both for explicitly educational purposes and for her own enjoyment and self-expression. She says that when dressing in historical costume, “As a black person, you have to know your stuff.” (McKnight, 2020, 5:41) She utilises the often problematic responses to her attire as a chance to educate. Just the sight of her can force parents to answer questions regarding racism and the history of slavery in North America. Her clothing is not just educational but a celebration. "My style is heavily influenced by my ancestors. I like to think that I dress the way they would have if they had all the resources that I have today." (McKnight, 2020, 17:58)

Fig. 3. McKnight afroterpreting (2021)

Agnes Woodward of the Kawacatoose First Nation, turned her passionate interest in the traditional dress of her people, into her own small business. Throughout her childhood, she was required to wear long skirts to ceremonies and other formal events but, after experiencing so much prejudice and racism already, she struggled with feelings of deep shame when wearing a garment that so amplified her indigeneity. After reaching adulthood, she began to question these feelings and what kind of example she wanted to be for her young daughters. "Am I still ashamed to be indigenous? Do I want to teach my daughters to be ashamed? No." (Woodward, 2021, 11:03) She began experimenting with teaching herself to sew ribbon skirts, a modern interpretation of a historical design from certain North American tribes, dating back to the 1700s. There are so many narratives that can be conveyed through these colourful garments, many different, highly personal meanings. Woodward says that for her, “It's been about taking back that shame, it's been about empowering myself to show my daughters that they don't ever have to be ashamed for who they are." (Woodward, 2021, 11:44) Woodward’s designs have become so popular that she now struggles to keep up with demand. These days, she, and many other indigenous women, wear them often and not just for ceremonies, valiantly proclaiming the culture and heritage that were almost lost. Woodward was commissioned to make a skirt in remembrance of missing and murdered indigenous women, girls, and two spirit people. The striking rainbow of colours, with appliqued figures arrayed in a pyramid, quickly became one of her most requested designs. So many indigenous people felt connected to the story behind it and wear it in a refusal to forget or accept injustice. (Woodward, 2021)

Fig. 4. Woodward’s MMIG2S skirt (2021)

Rebecca Maiten, a historical costumer and vintage clothing lover, documents the making and wearing of historically inspired clothing and costumes on her YouTube channel. Her work serves as both a creative outlet and a source of employment. As a plus size woman, Maiten takes the opportunity to advocate for size inclusivity both in the costuming community and in our understanding of history. Multiple videos on her channel offer tips and advice to plus size people who might be interested in dressing in historical costume or wearing vintage clothing. Other videos provide instructions for sizing up clothing and patterns to fit larger bodies. "I want to make one thing very clear. No matter what size or shape you are, you can wear costumes from any era because, you know what, there were women of all shapes and sizes that lived through every era… You can wear anything and you will look right." (Maiten, 2021, 0:16)

Fig. 5. Maiten as a recreated Victorian fashion plate (2021)

Some creators use Instagram to communicate through dialectical images, bringing visual notions of what was into conversation with the present moment, and, through those images, forcing us to reevaluate our notions of the past. (Ekardt, 2020, p. 44) Instagrammer Dr Christine Na-Eun Millar (@sewstine), shows us an image of a modern woman of Asian heritage dressed as a wealthy and fashionable woman of the 18th century, challenging our ideas of who was where and at what time. There is a common misconception in our idea of history, that somehow people of colour just didn’t exist in Europe “back then”, or if they did, only as servants or possibly as an exotic other. Even if that were true, there is no barrier to someone like Na-Eun Millar dressing like Marie Antoinette now. In a similar vein, Zachary Pinsent (@pinsent_tailoring) uses Instagram to show off his superb Regency tailoring skills by wearing almost exclusively period accurate menswear but often poses in romantic photos with his boyfriend. On International Women’s Day, he posted a photo of himself in Elizabethan women’s attire. (Dunlap, 2022, p. 10) These images force a confrontation between our rigid notion of the past as this place of homogeneity and conformity and the reality of humanity as heterogeneous and complicated. “History as a labyrinth allows the juxtaposition of historical images with contemporary ones; as the labyrinth doubles back on itself, what is most modern is revealed as also having a relation to what is most old.” (Evans, Vaccari, 2020, p. 114) Queer people and people of color have always existed, their stories are all throughout our history but often when we think of the past, that’s not the story we want to tell. Costumers like Christine Na-Eun Millar and Zachary Pinsent compel us to rethink that decision by presenting us with an alternative image of the past and possibilities for the future. This is not to say that such confrontations are always intentional on the part of these creators. Many do not think of themselves as explicitly political or as having an agenda beyond their own enjoyment. That does not lessen the visual impact on viewers, however.

Fig. 6. Na Eun Millar in 18th century attire (2021) Fig. 7. Pinsent and partner celebrating New Year (2022)

Confronting the Past - This practice that is being embraced by so many incredibly different people, is indicative of a cultural shift in how we are conceiving of history. We have only to watch a historical drama, a Jane Austen adaptation perhaps, to see exactly how we would often prefer to think about the past and our history. Carefully sanitised, generally focusing on the lives of the very wealthy and privileged, and with little to no acknowledgement of people who (we assume) did not fit the acceptable mould then or would not fit the mould now. Our modern ideals are imposed on the past, creating an illusion that what is considered beautiful or acceptable now is not a modern ideal, but just a fact of human nature. Our ideas about race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality are assumed to be largely unchanged. We presume they were worse in the past, of course, but that they follow the same basic pattern. All of these things have grains of truth to them, but fail to capture the complex reality of our history and, in the end, only drown out the stories of the marginalised even more than they already were.

The clothing that remains to bear physical witness of people in history sometimes does not paint an accurate portrait. Extant items in museums and collections are predominantly things that were prized or exclusive in some way. “The reason that we don't see very many extant plus size garments is because they were able to be worn by more people, and either wore out or were altered into different garments.” (Maiten, 2022) Similarly, the clothing of working class people, enslaved people, etc. was often not preserved the same way a court gown or even a wedding dress might have been.

But this practice, people choosing to embody both the traditional and radical through their clothing, is directly confronting our apprehension of our own history, and preserving, rediscovering, and elevating the stories that were lost, covered up, or shouted down. These creators are entering a new “uchronia'' that blends the past with the present and with an imagined, hoped for, future. (Evans, Vaccari, 2020, p. 111) They are seizing fashion as a method for transforming history, which then transforms the future. “Fashion thus also allows us to begin to think of other possibilities for [marginalised groups’] modernity. It allows us to see our way out of the positioning of [marginalised groups] as outside of the modern.” (Evans, Vaccari, 2020, p. 79) We cannot see indigenous women and two spirits as frozen in time when they are dressing vibrantly, defiantly in their own modern interpretations of traditional dress. We cannot see LGBTQIA people as purely modern when they are wearing Regency attire. We cannot see people of colour as absent from the history of wealth and privilege in Europe, when you have Asian American women dressed as 18th century French royalty. And the legacy of racism and slavery that our culture was so dependent on, cannot be ignored with someone like Cheney McKnight dressed as 19th century enslaved person.

Concerns for the Present - I have touched on a lot of positives regarding the adoption of clothing either replicating or inspired by historical, traditional, or folk dress, but this practice is not without issues and concerns. Some practitioners have been accused of cultural appropriation, a contentious action that can have wide ranging consequences from the benign to the truly harmful. Is it cultural appropriation for someone like Izdihar Bailey-Basayeva who was born and raised in the U.S., to adopt the folk dress of her Eastern European ancestors? Some Romanians think it is. (Bailey-Basayeva, 2021) And if it is, is it harmful? By bringing largely unknown styles and practises into the public eye, these creative individuals may also occasion an opportunity for those styles to be appropriated disingenuously. There are concerns that in the historical costume community, an elite fetishization is occurring when costumers recreate the fashions of the ultra wealthy from past centuries. Do we want our conception of history to be shaped by an elite, privileged minority? Cheney McKnight, and other black costumers and reenactors, expressed a mix of outrage and frustration with the white costumers who wanted to attend events on former plantations dressed as enslavers. (McKnight, 2021) This shows the possibility of disconnecting from the history of the clothing for people with white privilege or passing privilege, and suggests we still have a long way to go to realise the full potential of retelling history through fashion. Another risk is to the practitioners themselves. As people with marginalised identities, unusual dress renders them distinctive, even more than might otherwise be the case, which potentially makes them more of a target for bigotry and prejudice.

Conclusion - In spite of all these concerns, we are moving forward by improving and expanding our understanding of history. Clothing is being used to hold on to or rediscover those hidden parts of our past and to reimagine them for a new and hopefully more “wise” future, knowing and embracing our identities and the identities of others. (Tseelon, 2001, p. 60) It is a wisdom that is slowly spreading, but that we will need even more as we move into this future. We can utilise the fashions of past generations to confront the truths of our history and reimagine our next steps.

List of References

Ahmed, S. (2006) Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others. Duke University Press, Proquest Ebook Central. Available at: http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ual/detail.action?docID=1169326. (Accessed 1 January 2022).

Bailey-Basayeva, I. (2021) Why YOU Should Wear Folk Costumes. 28 May. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgwnt-Ev6LY. (Accessed 5 January 2022).

Benjamin, W. (2002) The Arcades Project. Belknap Press.

Boym, S. (2011) Nostalgia. Atlas of Transformation. Available at: http://monumenttotransformation.org/atlas-of-transformation/html/n/nostalgia/nostalgia-svetlana-boym.html. (Accessed 5 January 2022).

Dunlap, M. (2022) The Historical Costume Community and Subcultures in a Digital Age. University of the Arts London. Unpublished essay.

Ekardt, P. (2020) Benjamin on Fashion. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. Proquest Ebook Central. Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ual/detail.action?docID=6162671. (Accessed 2 January 2022).

Evans, C. & Vaccari, A. (2020) Time in Fashion : Industrial, Antilinear and Uchronic Temporalities. USA: Bloomsbury Publishing. Proquest Ebook Central. Available at: http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ual/detail.action?docID=6220354. (Accessed 31 December 2021).

Gottheil, R. Deutsch, G. (2002) ‘Judenhut’, Jewish Encyclopedia. Available at: https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9046-judenhut. (Accessed 7 January 2022).

Maiten, R. (2021) Plus Size Historical Costuming Tips - The Importance of Proportion… 16 January. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eqopY8w72U (Accessed 4 January 2022)

Maiten, R (2022) ‘Interview with Rebecca Maiten’. Interviewed by M. Dunlap for Assessment II, 3 January.

McKnight, C. (2020) How I Became a Black Reenactor. 8 June. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWBVyVTJQhU. (Accessed 5 January 2022).

McKnight, C. (2020) ‘Born in the Wrong Era’ & Other Misconceptions About Dressing Vintage. Interviewed by R. Maksy. 8 May. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5GAJl_vXxI. (Accessed 5 January 2022).

Tseelon, E. (2001) Masquerade and Identities: Essays on Gender, Sexuality and Marginality. Taylor & Francis Group. Proquest Ebook Central. Available at: http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ual/detail.action?docID=170912. (Accessed 2 January 2022).

Webstad, P. (N/A) ‘Phyllis’ Story’, Orange Shirt Society. Available at: https://www.orangeshirtday.org/phyllis-story.html. (Accessed 5 January 2022).

Woodward, A. (2021) The Life of an Indigenous Dressmaker: Featuring Agnes Woodward. Interviewed by V. Birchwood. 18 November. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNRECw-Pxr8. (Accessed 5 January 2022).

List of Illustrations

Figure 1. Bailey-Basayeva, I. (2021) ‘Just Some Side Profile Appreciation’ [Instagram]. 13 October. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/CU-bRH0Jfkl/. (Accessed 5 January 2022).

Figure 2. V [Snappy Dragon]. (2020) ‘Jew(ess)’ [Instagram]. 18 December. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/CI9HwCOgYxe/. (Accessed 6 January 2022).

Figure 3. McKnight, C. (2021) ‘What is Afroterpreting?’ [Instagram]. 7 December. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/CXMycv7A4gK/. (Accessed 6 January 2022).

Figure 4. Woodward, A. (2021) ‘Just a Reminder that All My Heroes are Matriarchs’ [Instagram]. 17 May. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/CO9Q30Cr-7r/. (Accessed 6 January 2022).

Figure 5. Maiten, R. (2021) ‘Can You Tell I’m in a Wintery Mood?’ [Instagram]. 1 December. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/CW7h_2qrArT/. (Accessed 6 January 2022).

Figure 6. Na-Eun Millar, C. (2021) ‘I Missed Out on Much of Fall for Costume’ [Instagram]. 29 November. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/CW24-HLrufI/. (Accessed 6 January 2022).

Figure 7. Pinsent, Z. (2022) ‘Happy New Year’ [Instagram]. 1 January. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/CYLLgvKA1JT/. (Accessed 6 January 2022).