Beyond Afros and activism: Analysis of Black and African American women and fashion, style, dress and identity in fashion studies literature

Abstract

There is much scholarship on dress and identity and the social, psychological and cultural aspects of dress within the textile and apparel discipline. While there is certainly much literature on dress, identity, fashion and the self, we sought to examine how Black women are centred in this area of research. To achieve our goal, we engaged in a systematic literature review to critically analyse how Black women’s dress and identity are explored in fashion studies scholarship, which involved searching for recurring themes and then making suggestions for future research to fill in gaps regarding Black women’s dress and identity expression. To narrow the scope of this research, we focused on two named theoretical perspectives: Black feminist thought and Africana womanism. After analysis of the publications, we identified two major themes: research centring resistance, oppression and Eurocentric beauty standards and holistic representations of Black women. Overall, our findings highlight that both Black feminist thought and Africana womanism theories could benefit from more expansive utilization within fashion studies research. Both frameworks are lightly referenced, especially Africana womanism, and, because of its rarity, could contribute newer and more critical knowledge to the discipline. There is so much more to explore about Black women’s dress outside of these concepts. We hope to inspire new research on Black women with holistic representations of the self and style.