OverDressed for Life

… clothes are never just garments. Each time we stand before our closet to pick out our clothes, we make a series of choices about how we want to appear before the world. This is just as true for people who claim not to care about clothes as it is for self-proclaimed fashionistas. It’s because we recognize that the way we adorn ourselves communicates something about who we are and where we come from. And everyone has experienced the discomfort of showing up somewhere dressed like they didn’t get the memo. We can think of our clothes, then, as a powerful social skin. 

Tanisha C. Ford, author, pop-culture expert, and associate professor of African Studies and History.

This quote is from Ms. Ford’s memoir, Dressed in Dreams: A Black Girl’s Love Letter to the Power of Fashion (St. Martin’s Press).

In Dreams, Ms. Ford discusses the important role fashion played in her African American community of Fort Wayne, Indiana. From her parent’s colorful Dashiki shirts to baggy jeans to the hoodie to knee-high boots, she shares her childhood story and how fashion influenced her life.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book for the interweave of fashion and the African American Mid-West experience in the 1980s/90s. Simply and distinctly, Ms. Ford offers readers a look at the point where politics and fashion crossed within her community and what that all meant to her at the time and now.

Dressed in Dreams: A Black Girl’s Love Letter to the Power of Fashion – it’s a good read!