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Liberated Threads: Black Women, Style, and the Global Politics of Soul
From the civil rights and Black Power era of the 1960s through antiapartheid activism in the 1980s and beyond, black women have used their clothing, hair, and style not simply as a fashion statement but as a powerful tool of resistance. Whether using stiletto heels as weapons to protect against police attacks or incorporating African-themed designs into everyday wear, these fashion-forward women celebrated their identities and pushed for equality.
In this thought-provoking book, Tanisha C. Ford explores how and why black women in places as far-flung as New York City, Atlanta, London, and Johannesburg incorporated style and beauty culture into their activism. Focusing on the emergence of the "soul style" movement represented in clothing, jewelry, hairstyles, and more Liberated Threads shows that black women's fashion choices became galvanizing symbols of gender and political liberation. Drawing from an eclectic archive, Ford offers a new way of studying how black style and Soul Power moved beyond national boundaries, sparking a global fashion phenomenon. Following celebrities, models, college students, and everyday women as they moved through fashion boutiques, beauty salons, and record stores, Ford narrates the fascinating intertwining histories of Black Freedom and fashion.
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In this thought-provoking book, Tanisha C. Ford explores how and why black women in places as far-flung as New York City, Atlanta, London, and Johannesburg incorporated style and beauty culture into their activism. Focusing on the emergence of the "soul style" movement represented in clothing, jewelry, hairstyles, and more Liberated Threads shows that black women's fashion choices became galvanizing symbols of gender and political liberation. Drawing from an eclectic archive, Ford offers a new way of studying how black style and Soul Power moved beyond national boundaries, sparking a global fashion phenomenon. Following celebrities, models, college students, and everyday women as they moved through fashion boutiques, beauty salons, and record stores, Ford narrates the fascinating intertwining histories of Black Freedom and fashion.
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256 pages, Hardcover
First published September 14, 2015
38 people are currently reading
641 people want to read
About the author
Tanisha C. Ford
6 books37 followersTanisha C. Ford is a foremost voice, speaking at the intersection of politics and culture. She is an award-winning writer, cultural critic, and Associate Professor of Africana Studies & History at the University of Delaware. Tanisha is also a co-founder of TEXTURES, a pop-up material culture lab creating and curating content on bodies and the built environment. Her commitment to social justice and communities of color is evident in everything she produces.
A native of a mid-sized Midwestern city most people have never heard of, Tanisha enjoys researching the histories of often-overlooked people and places. Her work centers on social movement history, feminism(s), material culture, the built environment, black life in the Rust Belt, girlhood studies, and fashion, beauty, and body politics. She makes connections between the past and the present in ways that shed refreshing new light on contemporary cultural and political issues.
A native of a mid-sized Midwestern city most people have never heard of, Tanisha enjoys researching the histories of often-overlooked people and places. Her work centers on social movement history, feminism(s), material culture, the built environment, black life in the Rust Belt, girlhood studies, and fashion, beauty, and body politics. She makes connections between the past and the present in ways that shed refreshing new light on contemporary cultural and political issues.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 30, 2019
A really interesting book--Ford does a great job of tracing the movement of "soul style" across the diaspora, as well as focusing on its impact in the US specifically, I was a little disappointed by her engagement with the question of capitalism--she insisted that the women about whom she was writing were making choices and didn't dwell on the question of the commodification of style, which I understand and appreciated, but sometimes I felt like she was going too hard in the paint on the question of agency in a way that made me go "but what about...?" when I wouldn't have otherwise felt that way. (More focus on the self-fashioning chapter maybe would have helped with this? I don't know.) Still a really really compelling look at the ways in which the politics of style are critical to politics of liberation, and super accessible for teaching!
March 8, 2020
Liberated Threads by Tanisha Ford explores Black women, style and the global politics of soul. Looking at style and Black liberation in the US, both the South and college campuses, the mixture of groups from former colonies in the UK, and also the meaning of control over your body and style in African nations, especially South Africa. There are threads through these stories, but also important differences.
Her chapter on the US in the 1950s, was really lost on me, but this is the milieu that I grew up in, so it might have had more meaning for my mother. She could see messages in these magazines that were lost on me. I saw Miriam Makeba on television, but it was more excitement about just having a Black person on the screen. I was not as interested in what she wore and the style of her hair. Yet, I realize compared to the other women in my family, I have little fashion sense. I was aware of the many nations in Africa that became independent. In junior high school, we divided into groups and studied the African nations. I think my group studied Ghana, initially called the Gold Coast. It was more about leadership, products, and not about style.
I grew up listening to Odetta and Nina Simone, even saw them perform. I only saw Miriam Makeba on television. My family had many Blue Note records, so I saw the covers, but did not think about how these faces were sending different messages than mainstream labels. I was more touched by the politics, the protest, and challenges to the system than their style, so reading this book is instructive.
My family was lax about “respectability,” or maybe I just did not pick up the messages. I think my grandmother was stricter, but I only saw her in the summers. Yet, I lived on St. Marks Place from 1954 until 1960, my father worked in a jazz club in Greenwich Village and in the neighborhood were many people who did not follow rules of “respectability.” However, I can grasp the internal struggles of young Black women in SNCC where the nature of civil rights work, including demonstrations and time in jail, does not permit the same attention to hair and dress. So, they adapt a new skin, which means natural hair, denim clothing and buttons that speak to their politics. Working from women’s memoirs, Ford documents the internal struggles and how their new uniform did not even meet with Bayard Rustin’s instructions for what to wear to the March on Washington.
As a high school student, I was active in the NY High School Friends of SNCC and spent time in the NY office. I was meeting people from the South and other regions, but recognized the relaxed dress code. What Ford does not attend to and perhaps the rules had changed by her time in elementary and high school, but for my generation girls could not wear pants to school. I had many knee socks, because that was how you kept your legs warm in the winter. Even my first year of college at Borough of Manhattan Community College, because we were located in a mid-town office building, we could not wear pants. Attending City College was the first time I had real freedom over my dress.
The focus on historical Black colleges brings more of the struggle of “respectability” in focus. Yet, between 1960 and 1970, the majority of Black students shift to predominantly White colleges, much like Ford’s own mother. The jump is related to the baby boom, the greater attention to higher education as we were in a space race with USSR. In terms of the economy, we needed for more educated workers, not just in the sciences and math, but also the social sciences and humanities, as the nation expanded colleges and where they were located—including more in urban areas. Most of my friends did not go away to college and live in dorms, we were city kids and just took different public transportation for higher education.
I found Chapter 5 on London and the UK very interesting. Ford does a nice job of identifying the struggles of those children of color who were born in the UK. The immigrant parents came after WW II to help rebuild the nation, particularly the National health Service. Yet, their children had many identity issues and were in the belly of the beast. The racism in the UK has a different shape. In the US, Negro, Colored and Black people had been discussing it, challenging it and developing social institutions to sustain themselves for decades. Even segregated schools were ways to train the next generation to fight with more tools. We are looking at young people, excluded from White spaces who have to build their own, so it is record stores, and over time hair salons. There is much double duty, as establishments fill many niches.
I think Ford does a nice job in both capturing their words and the struggles they endured in the face of police violence, as they young people whose afros and Black power clothing are not “sending the right message” about assimilating into the mainstream. I did not know about Olive Morris, but her story is sobering from many directions. The abuse is horrible, but I also thought about the Black college woman who protested to the warden when the women in the bunk below her was raped. There is racial discrimination, but also a sense of entitlement and behavioral norms. The class dimensions could be given more attention.
The Chapter 6 on Africa is not as rich, more dependent on newspapers and fewer of the voices that gives Chapter 5 much power. Yet, there is another dimension, as how to you assert yourself in body and style in contrast to both colonialism and the tribal heritages that had women in secondary positions. The vulnerability of women to both sets of rules and how you can be stylish when you are young, but once you are married, you have to dress differently. What does it mean when the Afro comes back across the ocean? We have a few voices here, but these nations are complex that means style, dress, and decorum are also complicated for women to navigate.
Her chapter on the US in the 1950s, was really lost on me, but this is the milieu that I grew up in, so it might have had more meaning for my mother. She could see messages in these magazines that were lost on me. I saw Miriam Makeba on television, but it was more excitement about just having a Black person on the screen. I was not as interested in what she wore and the style of her hair. Yet, I realize compared to the other women in my family, I have little fashion sense. I was aware of the many nations in Africa that became independent. In junior high school, we divided into groups and studied the African nations. I think my group studied Ghana, initially called the Gold Coast. It was more about leadership, products, and not about style.
I grew up listening to Odetta and Nina Simone, even saw them perform. I only saw Miriam Makeba on television. My family had many Blue Note records, so I saw the covers, but did not think about how these faces were sending different messages than mainstream labels. I was more touched by the politics, the protest, and challenges to the system than their style, so reading this book is instructive.
My family was lax about “respectability,” or maybe I just did not pick up the messages. I think my grandmother was stricter, but I only saw her in the summers. Yet, I lived on St. Marks Place from 1954 until 1960, my father worked in a jazz club in Greenwich Village and in the neighborhood were many people who did not follow rules of “respectability.” However, I can grasp the internal struggles of young Black women in SNCC where the nature of civil rights work, including demonstrations and time in jail, does not permit the same attention to hair and dress. So, they adapt a new skin, which means natural hair, denim clothing and buttons that speak to their politics. Working from women’s memoirs, Ford documents the internal struggles and how their new uniform did not even meet with Bayard Rustin’s instructions for what to wear to the March on Washington.
As a high school student, I was active in the NY High School Friends of SNCC and spent time in the NY office. I was meeting people from the South and other regions, but recognized the relaxed dress code. What Ford does not attend to and perhaps the rules had changed by her time in elementary and high school, but for my generation girls could not wear pants to school. I had many knee socks, because that was how you kept your legs warm in the winter. Even my first year of college at Borough of Manhattan Community College, because we were located in a mid-town office building, we could not wear pants. Attending City College was the first time I had real freedom over my dress.
The focus on historical Black colleges brings more of the struggle of “respectability” in focus. Yet, between 1960 and 1970, the majority of Black students shift to predominantly White colleges, much like Ford’s own mother. The jump is related to the baby boom, the greater attention to higher education as we were in a space race with USSR. In terms of the economy, we needed for more educated workers, not just in the sciences and math, but also the social sciences and humanities, as the nation expanded colleges and where they were located—including more in urban areas. Most of my friends did not go away to college and live in dorms, we were city kids and just took different public transportation for higher education.
I found Chapter 5 on London and the UK very interesting. Ford does a nice job of identifying the struggles of those children of color who were born in the UK. The immigrant parents came after WW II to help rebuild the nation, particularly the National health Service. Yet, their children had many identity issues and were in the belly of the beast. The racism in the UK has a different shape. In the US, Negro, Colored and Black people had been discussing it, challenging it and developing social institutions to sustain themselves for decades. Even segregated schools were ways to train the next generation to fight with more tools. We are looking at young people, excluded from White spaces who have to build their own, so it is record stores, and over time hair salons. There is much double duty, as establishments fill many niches.
I think Ford does a nice job in both capturing their words and the struggles they endured in the face of police violence, as they young people whose afros and Black power clothing are not “sending the right message” about assimilating into the mainstream. I did not know about Olive Morris, but her story is sobering from many directions. The abuse is horrible, but I also thought about the Black college woman who protested to the warden when the women in the bunk below her was raped. There is racial discrimination, but also a sense of entitlement and behavioral norms. The class dimensions could be given more attention.
The Chapter 6 on Africa is not as rich, more dependent on newspapers and fewer of the voices that gives Chapter 5 much power. Yet, there is another dimension, as how to you assert yourself in body and style in contrast to both colonialism and the tribal heritages that had women in secondary positions. The vulnerability of women to both sets of rules and how you can be stylish when you are young, but once you are married, you have to dress differently. What does it mean when the Afro comes back across the ocean? We have a few voices here, but these nations are complex that means style, dress, and decorum are also complicated for women to navigate.
March 28, 2024
No sé cómo no había leído este libro antes! Me parece fantástica la investigación y el recorrido que hace la autora para explicar cómo el fenómeno del estilo soul y la vestimenta afrodiasporica, influyó e inspiró a mujeres para representar movimientos de liberación.
Como activista, también he utilizado la estética y la moda como una herramienta de aproximación a las personas para que se autoidentifiquen, sientan orgullo de sus raíces y, además, como una punta de lanza para hablar de las realidades y desafíos que vive la población afro.
Creo que es un libro obligatorio para quienes sientan pasión por la moda y el arte, y encontrar vías para hacer artivismo y capacitaciones que impacten en el desarrollo personal de las personas afro, generar inspiración y pensamiento crítico.
Quienes hemos estudiado la sociología de la moda, sabemos lo influyente que puede ser para una revolución.
Como activista, también he utilizado la estética y la moda como una herramienta de aproximación a las personas para que se autoidentifiquen, sientan orgullo de sus raíces y, además, como una punta de lanza para hablar de las realidades y desafíos que vive la población afro.
Creo que es un libro obligatorio para quienes sientan pasión por la moda y el arte, y encontrar vías para hacer artivismo y capacitaciones que impacten en el desarrollo personal de las personas afro, generar inspiración y pensamiento crítico.
Quienes hemos estudiado la sociología de la moda, sabemos lo influyente que puede ser para una revolución.
January 5, 2023
The release of Tasisha C Ford's book Liberated Threads: Black Women, Style and the Global Politics of Soul is a monumental contribution to the study of fashion and its role in identity formation. This engaging, groundbreaking work offers readers an in-depth look into how fashion has been used as a form of resistance for black women throughout history. Through case studies ranging from the Afro-diasporic aesthetic to the rise and fall of urban streetwear, to hair politics in African American communities, Ford provides a comprehensive analysis of black women’s relationship with style.
Ford begins by contextualizing her research within the framework of both African American history and colonial history. She establishes that fashion has always been deeply intertwined with race and class dynamics in America, noting that even within the African American community these dynamics have played out differently depending on regional context or generational divides. Throughout Liberated Threads she uses this framework to explore how black women have used style as a form of resistance against oppression and as an expression of their own unique identities.
What makes this book so unique is Ford’s ability to combine theoretical analysis with personal narratives from a variety of sources including interviews with scholars and practitioners working within the field. These interviews add depth to her arguments about how fashion has served as both an arena for self-expression for black women as well as a way to challenge oppressive power structures. By weaving together these different elements she paints a vivid picture that allows readers to gain insight into how black female identities are formed through dress practices over time.
In sum, Liberated Threads is an important contribution to our understanding not just of fashion but also of identity formation more broadly. It is accessible yet still intellectually rigorous; it encourages readers not only to consider why we dress in certain ways but also to consider where those ideas come from in the first place. Highly recommended!
Ford begins by contextualizing her research within the framework of both African American history and colonial history. She establishes that fashion has always been deeply intertwined with race and class dynamics in America, noting that even within the African American community these dynamics have played out differently depending on regional context or generational divides. Throughout Liberated Threads she uses this framework to explore how black women have used style as a form of resistance against oppression and as an expression of their own unique identities.
What makes this book so unique is Ford’s ability to combine theoretical analysis with personal narratives from a variety of sources including interviews with scholars and practitioners working within the field. These interviews add depth to her arguments about how fashion has served as both an arena for self-expression for black women as well as a way to challenge oppressive power structures. By weaving together these different elements she paints a vivid picture that allows readers to gain insight into how black female identities are formed through dress practices over time.
In sum, Liberated Threads is an important contribution to our understanding not just of fashion but also of identity formation more broadly. It is accessible yet still intellectually rigorous; it encourages readers not only to consider why we dress in certain ways but also to consider where those ideas come from in the first place. Highly recommended!
March 7, 2021
Extremely well researched and written. This work effectively altered preconceived notions I didn't even know I had. Everyone should read this as a form of reunderstanding Black Cultural History in the US. An essential read to those studying the African diaspora and those who need an example of material culture history and writing. Also recommend listening to the author interviewed on the podcast "Dressed".
February 3, 2018
Really informative, interesting look at the evolution of black soul style. Ford writes in a really clear, engaging way, which is not always the case with academic tomes. I picked up this book because one of the chapters dealt with a movement that I was writing about, but I ended up reading the whole thing!
April 7, 2025
This book is great for cultural and African American historians. It was fairly easy to read and understand, but it is information heavy. Casual readers may get lost in the argument. However, I do believe that this is a beneficial read to not only better understand the Civil Rights movement but black style in the United States.
January 3, 2018
I loved this book and read it in one sitting. I learned a lot from this book about black women. I was very fascinated by the connection between fashion and politics.
October 15, 2019
Read slow and was too all over the place for me. I felt like I was reading about different biographies of women instead of the overall theme of the book.
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October 6, 2017391.0082 F7117 2015
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews