大象传媒

History has milestones.

Significant dates and events stand as markers for a movement or era - from the abolition of slavery in the 19th Century to Dr Martin Luther King Jr鈥檚 鈥淚 Have a Dream鈥 speech in 1963.

But then there鈥檚 the history which is all around us, even if we don鈥檛 notice it. That could be in the clothes we wear, or even our hair style. To mark Black History Month, Professor Carol Tulloch of University of Arts London - an expert in fashion, textiles and cultural heritage - spoke to 大象传媒 Bitesize about the black history that can be found in something as straightforward as a suit - or even a comb.

Image caption,
The sharp-cut suits and smart shoes of the Windrush generation gradually became an influence on British fashion - with tailors from the Caribbean working for high street stores.

The formal style of the Windrush generation

In 1948, a ship called Windrush docked in Essex, carrying passengers who were mainly from the Caribbean. This was the start of people from different parts of the Commonwealth settling in the UK to find employment opportunities in the years after the Second World War when new workers were needed in many jobs. They became known as the Windrush generation and they also brought with them an influential look.

Prof Tulloch said: 鈥淚f you鈥檙e talking about Windrush and people arriving as passengers, there鈥檚 a lot of photographs of that time and the disembarkation of mainly men, and some women. They鈥檙e in incredibly beautiful suits and ties.鈥

These sharp suits, with trousers in different cuts than UK men were used to - often wider or slimmer in the leg - highly polished shoes, smart ties, immaculate haircuts and hats such as the fedora and trilby (with brims folded upwards), became part of what was later known as Black British Style. It wasn鈥檛 just about looking as smart as possible, as Prof Tulloch explained - it was also a move parents were keen to encourage in the hope their children would avoid prejudice. She said: 鈥淚t was just drilled into you about looking the best you could when you went out on the streets. To look smart, to look presentable. You鈥檙e so well turned out that you don鈥檛 attract racism.鈥

Fabrics from the Caribbean and Africa were also in the ensemble. Winston Levy, father of the novelist Andrea Levy, had a shirt showing scenes of Jamaican life with him when he stepped from the Windrush, to remind him of home. It is now part of the British Library's collection.

The emerging Black British Style was noticed by the wider world. Prof Tulloch explained how some men who had been tailors in Jamaica now found themselves working for major UK menswear stores. They wouldn鈥檛 always work in the factory but from their bedrooms, sewing garments together before handing them over. The smart look which combined fabrics from UK and African cultures also influenced the movement. The designer Althea McNish was born in Trinidad, moved to the UK in the 1950s and became acclaimed for her colourful designs in the austerity of the post-war period. Her fabrics were often selected for couture designs by fashion houses such as Christian Dior.

Image caption,
The sharp-cut suits and smart shoes of the Windrush generation gradually became an influence on British fashion - with tailors from the Caribbean working for high street stores.
Image caption,
The American musician and producer Questlove displays an afro comb which incorporates the clenched fist of the Black Power movement on its handle.

The Afro - and its comb - as symbols of empowerment

In the 1960s and 鈥70s, the Black Power movement grew in the US. Its aim was to instil racial pride and create political and cultural institutions with black people, their history, and an empowered future at its heart, although in the USA some of its methods were seen as controversial by parts of American society. The movement also spread into the UK, with protests and marches organised in different parts of the country. A symbol linked to Black Power is the Afro hairstyle, where black people wore their hair naturally without smoothing it down, as had previously been commonplace. These styles could be so voluminous, a special kind of comb was needed to maintain it.

鈥淭he afro comb emerged as part of the black consciousness and Black Power movement,鈥 said Prof Tulloch. 鈥淔irstly in the United States and then, all over the world.鈥

Prof Tulloch also commented on the difficulty she had buying products made specifically for Afro hair in her home town of Doncaster when she was a teenager in the 1970s. She laughed: 鈥淚f I went to London to see my gran, I would have orders from friends of what hair products they wanted. We went to Brixton and bought them there!鈥

This included the Afro comb. With its longer teeth, usually spaced wider apart than a regular comb, it made it easier to, as Prof Tulloch explained: 鈥渇luff out the hair and help to give it more volume.鈥 She added that this also made the Afro comb useful to white people with thick, naturally curly hair who had previously struggled to pull narrow-tooth combs through their locks. As counterculture became popular in the 1960s, Prof Tulloch noted that white people could also be seen with their hair in the Afro style, especially at festivals such as Woodstock.

But the Afro comb was not a 20th Century invention. Examples of it can be traced back thousands of years. A more recent design became popular during the 1970s, with the handle of the comb ending in the clenched fist that was the salute of the Black Power movement. This was first patented by two Americans - Samuel H Bundles Jr and Henry M Childrey - in 1969.

Image caption,
The American musician and producer Questlove displays an afro comb which incorporates the clenched fist of the Black Power movement on its handle.
Image caption,
The singer Terence Trent D'Arby (now known as Sananda Maitreya) in a Free Nelson Mandela t-shirt designed for Artists Against Apartheid - a protest group formed of musicians and performers - in 1986.

Protest t-shirts

Using the front of a t-shirt to express your views isn鈥檛 unique to black culture - it鈥檚 also been employed, for example, by groups campaigning for women鈥檚 rights and LGBTQ+ causes.

鈥淚t鈥檚 an activist tool,鈥 said Prof Tulloch, 鈥渁s in Black Lives Matter, for example. It鈥檚 a form of making statements.鈥

In the 1980s, some countries - including the UK - boycotted goods and trade from South Africa due to its policy of apartheid, which favoured white people and gave them more rights, and saw them living separately to black people.

Protest groups, such as the Anti-Apartheid Enterprise, produced their own merchandise to spread the message about their cause. This led, as Prof Tulloch explained, to some mass-produced t-shirt designs becoming popular and worn by influential musicians and celebrities who also wanted to show that they opposed apartheid. She said: 鈥淚t was a movement to release black people from apartheid in South Africa, but it was worn by both black and white people in the UK too.鈥

Apartheid officially came to an end in the early 1990s and Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa in 1994.

This article was published in October 2023.

Image caption,
The singer Terence Trent D'Arby (now known as Sananda Maitreya) in a Free Nelson Mandela t-shirt designed for Artists Against Apartheid - a protest group formed of musicians and performers - in 1986.

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