Currently researching clothing worn by WIndrush era passengers and black women in Jamaica at around the same time

[KatyMac]

I am costuming my first show and I really need some accurate photos

I have been googling but I'm getting lots of white women in Jamaica and the pictures about arriving in the UK there are loads of coats bit I can't see details

Can anyone point me in the right direction please

Would styles of clothing changed with the transition from Jamaica to the UK (apart from the cold)

What an interesting project.

People coming from the Caribbean at that time often have photographs from home. And then more of their new lives in England.

It's worth remembering that many women would have grown up with clothes handmade by seamstresses, with just the odd ready-made thing (coats especially) bought for the journey.

So, rather than Google, I'd suggest you seek out some women who made that journey (or their descendants) and see what they have in their personal photographic archives. (And memories.)

There are several books touching on Caribbean fashion - often documenting exhibitions. These would also be well worth investigating.

I think my library is shut right now - otherwise I'd be there

I have an interview booked with my cousin-in-law today but she was about 12 when she came; several ladies in the family (DH's) are the right age but frail and sometimes confused

I have been given a selection of dresses my Godmum's sister wore in Jamaica between 1959 and late 60's but she was white and I am fairly sure (sweeping assumptions here) she was in close contact with the UK and socially would have been in different styles.

So you need to research more widely. Not all elderly Jamaican women living in England are confused! (And a wonderful phenomenon of aging is that just as short term memory becomes unreliable, distant memory becomes pin-sharp. Generalising of course.)

Other people might suggest approaching 'community groups'. I'm not going to - because thousands of adults don't belong to such things - but I'm sure there are plenty of channels to finding people who might help.

As for the library being shut - why not try putting some key words into Amazon and building up a list? (This is always one of my first resources for any research.) Once you've exhausted all the free kindle samples you can try academic libraries. (Online obviously, fir the moment.) And at the same time you may find one or two fashion historians who can give specific help.

In fact, your best bet might be to approach universities that have clothing history departments, and see if one has exactly the resources you need.

Well my conversation this morning was eye opening

My pre-concieved ideas are smashed!! Call the Midwife I'm looking at you!!

Now talking to another family member when she has time & the call has gone out on the family grapevine!

You have given me loads to look up - I will have a go (maybe at the weekend)

Thanks so much

Now ... What were your preconceived ideas??

Please, please share!

My MIL talks about dressing up from church (no jewellery, no make up , no short sleeve, hat & gloves very conservative) and actually this meets the BBC's Call the Midwife - Leonie (playing Lucille)is a relative but I cant use that to get help really
Lucille wears quite conservative old-fashioned (or maybe not high fashion) clothes when she arrives and moves reasonably quickly into more modern clothes (like the other Midwives) except for church

One of the churches MIL attended in Jamaica wears a uniform

So the writer was thinking a shirt-waster in pastel colour with short sleeves moving into 1960's minidresses

But my Cousin-in-law said it would have been minis in Jamaica resaonably early on in the 1960s

There are probably some historical societies/groups based in the Brixton (London) area as many Windrush families ended up there. I live in the same borough as Brixton and the Borough does a lot of exhibitions etc when it's Black History Month. Try looking online for Lambeth (the borough) History Archives.

As bookmum08 says, the Black Cultural Archives are based in Brixton. You can't drop in, obviously, but the curators are around remotely- here's the link to what's available

blackculturalarchives.org/blog/2020/3/17/important-notice-from-black-cultural-archives-m7g2m

Best of luck with the show you're costuming, sounds interesting! What's the show?

My MIL came to London from the Caribbean (Guyana) in 1960, aged 27. There are some fabulous photos of her leaving party in Georgetown (unfortunately pics are in albums at my BILs house in the USA) with a bouffant hairdo and wearing a very chic, Jackie O style turtle neck mini dress.

She was from a poor, rural area but managed to get a job at the telephone exchange in Georgetown, and then for BT in London. She was apparently very fashionable and glamorous. Later photos of her in the mid 60s onwards in London show her in all the latest fashions.

Fab-u-lous thanks - this will all help