Vintage aficionado, Rachel Maksy, made a lovely video about the Vintage Community. The video is about the progressive side of the Vintage Community. It was lovely, but something rubbed me the wrong way. Then I realized it was two somethings or rather two someones; Bernadette Banner and Karolina Zebrowska.
Banner and Zebrowska have been a large part of the Vintage Community. They are both intelligent professionals and are highly knowledgable about vintage topics. I think this is why I am writing this post.
A few years ago Zebrowska made a video about how "real women" dressed in the early 20th century, for which she received a lot of black lash. I don't have the words as to why her particular video upset me. I think it was in the ignorance that she could speak for all working class women in a single video. I have watched many of her videos and Banner's videos, but have never heard either of them address any diverse topics. They are working class white women and they only address working class white women. There is on way that in the amount of research they have done on historical fashion that they have not come across any topics or ideas about someone unlike themselves in culture and appearance; someone non-western, non-white, non-straight, or (gasp) even non-traditionally feminine.
I am a person who is Western, half white, straight, and very cisgendered feminine. I want to hear about more diverse topics. People might say back to me, well why don't you do the research. Honestly, because I shouldn't have to. I am not a fashion historian. Zebrowska and Banner are. That is what they make videos about. I am an English teacher and I make sure I provide diverse materials for ALL my students. Why? Not only for representation's sake, but because diverse voices are have been historically underrepresented and I owe it to them.
I hold no ill will towards Masky, Banner, or Zebrowska. I'm just disappointed with how casually they take on a vintage identity. I don't need or even want them to say in every video how privileged they are when it comes to race. I would like them to be more aware of it. I see colorblindness in them and I recognize that is something personal to me.
Please let me know if you know of any more progressive vintage icons in the comments below!
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