How The Sewing Machine Gave Power — And Fashion Cred — To African Women

Masego Madzwamuse of NPR’s Goats and Soda presents an interview with Catherine McKinley on the release of her new book, The African Lookbook: A Visual History of 100 Years of African Women.

“In the fashion world, a "lookbook" is a collection of photos highlighting, say, a fashion designer's work or a fashion model.

The African Lookbook has a different agenda: images that present a stereotype-busting way to look at African women, their relationship with fashion — and their ability to turn the sewing machine from a tool synonymous with toil, lack of choice and oppression into a means for them to achieve economic power.

Indeed, African American author Catherine McKinley bends, stretches and tears the fabric of what mainstream history has been telling us about African women in the clothing industry with a visual history of the 100-year span her book covers.”