I’m sorry for the radio silence.

On a personal level, it’s because I’ve been dealing with a really difficult and stressful situation.

On a bigger level, it’s because blogging about fashion history while black, indigenous & other people of colour continue to be marginalised, oppressed, and killed seems frivolous and pointless.

#blacklives matter.

You don’t need my voice: another privileged white woman, telling you about it.

All I can do is to educate myself, and to try to use this blog and instagram to share the work and knowledge of those who have been working for racial equality, and to decolonise the US, New Zealand and the rest of the world.

I’m working on a plan to lend actual, practical support.

I can also work to help make the historical costuming community a safe, supportive place for people of colour: one that doesn’t romanticise or idealise the past, and that does not provide a platform for racism.

This blog and my instagram will continue to be a combination of fashion history and social history, because fashion is social history, and you can’t understand dress without understanding the social conditions that created that dress.

The whole point of understanding history is to use that understanding to keep the worst parts of history from repeating themselves, and to use what you know to create a better world. So I’m going to use whatever voice and platform I have to work for social justice.

If you’re here for that – thank you!