Negroland: A Memoir

Part of a number of illustrations realised in 2017 for the Book Review section of Sir Edmund (De Volkskrant).

In her book “Negroland: A Memoir” author Margo Jefferson recounts her upbringing in the rich Black elite of Chicago in the '50s. She was meant to become part of a class of “blazingly overachieving men and women—vindicating previous generations of Black american suffering, humiliation, pain, and rage” (M. Richardson).

In author's Jefferson words: "In general, fashion is decorative, it’s protective, it acknowledges that the world does involve conflict, and you might be attacked by assumptions, presumptions, and attitudes. 

But how you looked -and how you felt about how you looked- helped shield you, and it helped shield you from the moment you put fashion on."