Reviewed by:

• Clothing and Fashion in Southern History ed. by Ted Ownby and Becca Walton
• Kathleen B. Casey

The hand-drawn image reproduced on the cover of Clothing and Fashion in Southern History depicts four mid-twentieth-century women in form-fitting shirts and horizontally striped skirts; it is not immediately apparent that the women represent prisoners at Mississippi's notorious Parchman prison. Drawn in 1954 by Albert Lee, an inmate at Parchman, the image also graced the cover of Inside World, the publication produced by Parchman inmates. A small group of women inmates made uniforms for the entire prison population. Inside World proves to be a compelling source examined by Becca Walton, who is both a coeditor of and a contributor to this slim collection of six essays documenting the making, mending, wearing, and selling of clothing in the South from the mid-nineteenth century through the 1980s.

Walton's essay is one of the standouts in a wide-ranging collection that seeks to grapple with a rather ambitious and unwieldy subject, southern fashion. Of course, countless historians have examined the food, music, and folkways of the [End Page 350] South, and several southern museums boast impressive costume and textile collections. However, Clothing and Fashion in Southern History is the first to treat the subject of southern clothing in one discrete volume. As the introductory essay notes, "If one adds the word 'southern' to the word clothing, it's not clear where to begin" (p. vii).

Chronologically, the collection begins with Katie Knowles's essay, which examines the evolution, making, and marketing of what was known as "negro cloth" in the antebellum period (p. 7). Knowles builds on the earlier arguments of scholars such as Shane White and Graham White and Linda K. Baumgarten, who have demonstrated that enslaved people used patchwork and bright dyes to forge individual identities and an African American aesthetic. Knowles provides fresh insights on the unrecognized labor of enslaved women who creatively improvised clothing, often by reusing old textiles. Arguing that "race operated as a part of the fashion system in America," Knowles offers insight that echoes through many of the essays in this collection (p. 21).

Other essays include Susannah Walker's examination of how racism pervaded the Works Progress Administration sewing programs through which Black women sought to make ends meet in the New Deal South, carving out autonomous lives for their families. William Sturkey's fine essay on the Mississippi Poor People's Corporation also reveals the ways working-class Black women "used clothing manufacture as a mode of activism and resistance" (p. 111). In doing so, Sturkey convincingly argues that their labor and activism must be situated in the context of the Black Power movement.

As Jonathan Prude notes in the conclusion, the collection presents "no sustained claim of an identifiable southern style of clothing," yet these essays prompt readers to interrogate the relationship between clothing and power across "southern settings" (p. 142). The most salient theme across the essays is women's adaptive creation, use, and reuse of clothing. This volume is written in accessible language and makes notable contributions to our understanding of how clothing intersects with race, gender, and identity more broadly. It should engage a wide range of readers, especially those who are interested in gaining a more nuanced understanding of southern women's work.

审核人：

• 南方历史中的服装和时尚编辑。特德·奥恩比（Ted Ownby）和贝卡·沃尔顿（Becca Walton）
• 凯瑟琳·凯西（Kathleen B.Casey）

手绘的图像复制在《南方历史的服装和时尚》的封面上，描绘了四十世纪中叶的四名女性，这些女性都穿着合身的衬衫和水平条纹的裙子。目前尚不清楚这些妇女是密西西比州臭名昭著的Parchman监狱中的囚犯。该图像由Parchman的一名囚犯Albert Lee在1954年绘制，图像还装饰了Parchman的囚犯所出版的《Inside World》的封面。一小部分女囚犯为整个监狱人口制作制服。内部世界事实证明，这是Becca Walton的令人信服的资料来源，Becca Walton既是这六篇论文的精编本的撰稿人之一，也是这本论文的撰稿人，这些论文记录了19世纪中叶至20世纪20年代中期在南方制造，修补，穿着和出售服装的情况。 1980年代。

沃尔顿（Walton）的文章是一系列试图与一个雄心勃勃且笨拙的南方时尚主题抗衡的杰出作品之一。当然，有无数的历史学家研究了[End Page 350]南部的饮食，音乐和民俗，南部的一些博物馆则拥有令人印象深刻的服装和纺织品收藏。但是，《南方历史中的服装和时尚》是第一个以单独的卷来论述南方服装的主题的书。正如介绍性文章所述，“如果在服装一词上加上'南方'一词，就不清楚从哪里开始”（第vii页）。

按时间顺序，该系列始于凯蒂·诺尔斯（Katie Knowles）的论文，该论文考察了战前时期所谓的“黑人布”的演变，制造和营销（第7页）。诺尔斯基于学者谢恩·怀特（Shane White）和格雷厄姆·怀特（Graham White）和琳达·K·鲍姆加滕（Linda K. Baumgarten）等学者的较早论证，他们证明，被奴役的人使用拼布和鲜艳的染料来塑造个人身份和非裔美国人的美学。诺尔斯（Knowles）提供了有关被奴役妇女无法识别的劳动的最新见解，这些妇女通常通过重复使用旧纺织品来创造性地即兴创作服装。诺尔斯认为“种族是美国时尚系统的一部分”，提供的见解与该系列的许多论文相呼应（第21页）。

其他文章包括苏珊娜·沃克（Susannah Walker）对种族主义如何渗透到美国工作进展管理局（Work Progress Administration）缝纫计划的调查，黑人妇女通过这些缝纫计划力求在新政南方谋求生计，从而为家庭谋取了独立生活。威廉·斯特基（William Sturkey）在密西西比州穷人公司上的精美文章还揭示了工人阶级黑人妇女“将服装制造作为一种积极主义和反抗的方式”的方式（第111页）。在这样做时，斯图基令人信服地指出，他们的劳动和行动主义必须置于黑人权力运动的背景下。

正如乔纳森·普鲁德（Jonathan Prude）在结论中所指出的那样，该系列“没有持久地宣称可识别的南方风格的服装”，但是这些文章提示读者在“南方环境”中审视服装与权力之间的关系（第142页）。论文中最突出的主题是女性的适应性创造，使用和重复使用衣服。本册以通俗易懂的语言编写，对我们对服装如何与种族，性别和身份如何相交的理解做出了显着贡献。它应该吸引广泛的读者，尤其是那些对获得对南方女性工作更细微差别的了解感兴趣的读者。