Unconventional Fashion Archiving as Memory Work

Histories of Black women are often overlooked and excluded from conventional museums, study collections, and archives. This article presents two cases of unconventional fashion archival practices where Black women challenge conventions of documentation and preservation through collecting, making, and wearing clothing: (1) the home as a fashion archive and (2) archiving through making fashion. By challenging conventional archival practices, these Black women use fashion archiving as a form of memory work that declares their presence in history as both makers and preservers of Black culture in Harlem, New York City. Through archival and embodied acts of advocacy and resistance, Black women claim agency and forge collective resistance, affirming their enduring role in Harlem’s past, present, and future.