Dressed in Dreams
A Black Girl's Love Letter to the Power of Fashion
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
NOW OPTIONED BY Sony Pictures TV FOR A LIVE-ACTION SERIES ADAPTATION: produced by Freida Pinto and Gabrielle Union
"A perfect time to look at the ethos of black hair in America — and the perfect person to do it is Tanisha Ford" —Changing America
"Everyone from the shopaholic to the clearance rack queen will see themselves in [Ford's] pages." —Essence
"Takes you not only into the closet, but the inner sanctum of an ordinary extraordinary Black girl who discovered herself through clothes." —Michaela Angela Davis, Image Activist and Writer
"[A] delightful style story." —The Philadelphia Inquirer
From sneakers to leather jackets, a bold, witty, and deeply personal dive into Black America's closet In this highly engaging book, fashionista and pop culture expert Tanisha C. Ford investigates Afros and dashikis, go-go boots and hotpants of the sixties, hip hop's baggy jeans and bamboo earrings, and the #BlackLivesMatter-inspired hoodies of today.
The history of these garments is deeply intertwined with Ford’s story as a black girl coming of age in a Midwestern rust belt city. She experimented with the Jheri curl; discovered how wearing the wrong color tennis shoes at the roller rink during the drug and gang wars of the 1980s could get you beaten; and rocked oversized, brightly colored jeans and Timberlands at an elite boarding school where the white upper crust wore conservative wool shift dresses.
Dressed in Dreams is a story of desire, access, conformity, and black innovation that explains things like the importance of knockoff culture; the role of “ghetto fabulous” full-length furs and colorful leather in the 1990s; how black girls make magic out of a dollar store t-shirt, rhinestones, and airbrushed paint; and black parents' emphasis on dressing nice. Ford talks about the pain of seeing black style appropriated by the mainstream fashion industry and fashion’s power, especially in middle America. In this richly evocative narrative, she shares her lifelong fashion revolution—from figuring out her own personal style to discovering what makes Midwestern fashion a real thing too.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ford, a professor of history and Africana Studies, follows up 2015's Liberated Threads with this thoughtful memoir in which "clothes are never just garments." She traces her journey from industrial Fort Wayne, Ind., through boarding school on the East Coast (where she had to balance the baggy jeans she loved and the Mary Janes the preppy kids were wearing) and a year of college in Atlanta (where the lure of knee-high boots eventually surrendered to the desire to move back to Indiana, where her young son was living with her parents), to a protest of the death of Michael Brown (where hoodies, which were utilitarian for the factory workers of Fort Wayne and fashionable for their kids, became political) and a Louis Vuitton store on Fifth Avenue in New York. The dashiki runs through it all, beginning as a symbol of her parents' individualism in the 1970s and continuing as a shorthand for their dreams for her. Ford sprinkles in the history and politics of the styles she highlights as well as a deep affection for her mother, the first style icon she knew. Her knowledge of fashion and her love for the women who influenced her style makes this appealing for anyone who's ever loved a piece of clothing.