Hi! When I tell you that I was so excited for this post I nearly posted it at midnight, completely going against my schedule for this month, just to have it out there.....my lawd. I have waited for four years to do this post. No joke. I nearly made it the last Extra post this month (you know, saving the best for last and all'at lol) but realized I couldn't wait anymore. lol I wanted to do a Spotlight on Black pinup models a few years ago but not only was I new to 'investigative blogging' (lol) back then, I was also new to Instagram--as in, I'd just created an account a month prior and had shared less than 10 photos new lol--so my attempts to pull this post together didn't go so well. I wasn't sure where to start so I went off of different articles highlighting Black pinups. Many of those articles profiled pinups that had since changed usernames, switched their focus away from pinup or deleted the account entirely. I decided to put the post away until I'd found enough accounts but somewhere within the last year, I expanded it to others in the Black community with ties to the vintage lifestyle. Eventually, the idea was a directory of sorts but again, the amount still wasn't quite where I would have liked and I started worrying about leaving people out. I'm satisfied with the number in this post but I'd like to make this an open post to include others later, so I intend to add more as I find them or am linked to them.
A directory seemed the better direction to take, as Blacks are often underrepresented in vintage as a whole. POC in general are often underrepresented but thanks to social media, we now have exposure to so many different kinds of people who have some tie to vintage, whether it be as an enthusiast, a performer or shop owner. There aren't a lot of positive things I can say about social media, but the exposure to so many POC who love vintage just as much, if not more, than I do is one of those few positive things. Part of the reason why I think it took me awhile to be comfortable with my love for vintage was because it's not a common interest in the Black community. It's not one you hear many Black people talking about. As for my local circle, it's minority run but there still isn't a huge focus on vintage. It's very much a niche interest here and liking vintage was never an 'in' thing to do. For a Black girl to be into vintage though, it was definitely considered odd and I was clowned for it a number of times. I got used to it and just relegated myself to having 'unique' interests. I've had off-brand interests for so long that being 'off the beaten path' has kind of become my brand. lol To get on social media though and find so many other Black people doing burlesque, pinup, and performing in Big Band-era bands gave me such a sense of belonging. I figured if I was considered 'unique' for just liking vintage, not practicing it, then I was in damn good company with these lovely folks, who have made it their lives.
I think another reason why I eventually decided to make this a larger post is because I was thinking about what I needed a few years ago. I didn't necessarily need my interest in vintage validated anymore by that time--I would have still loved vintage whether I was the only Black person who liked it or if I was just one in a sea of millions--but like I said earlier, it's nice to feel like you belong somewhere. I've been an outcast all of my life so I'm used to it but it's still nice to know you're not completely alone sometimes. Finding other Blacks in vintage helped give me a sense of camaraderie and more confidence in my love for it. For other young Black girls (or guys) starting to explore their love of vintage, I wanted this to be that master list I was hoping to stumble on all those years ago. Anyway, I have definitely babbled for long enough. I've split the directory into four categories, which I'll detail below. In directory fashion, I've tried to alphabetize each section but by username. LOL Let's get to the directory!
*Mandy's Note: The photos are going to be quite large, so I'd recommend taking the zoom on your PC down to about 80% so you can see more of the image at one time. Also, this is very long. VERY long. As in over 100 names long. So consider yourself warned. Get a snack. lol *
Burlesque/Cabaret
This section is the most surprising to me as four years ago when I first had this idea, I didn't see too many burlesque dancers, of any color. I started seeing them pop up that following summer and by the next time I revisited this post, the Black burlesque dancers had already outnumbered the pinups I'd found. Initially I was just going to make it a pinup post but when I saw how many burlesque dancers there were, I knew I couldn't leave them out. I don't have Black boylesque performers on the list...yet. So far I've only found one so just give me a little more time and they'll be here. I also did not include performers whose profiles are private. This was probably the hardest section to find photos for; all of these women have so much heart, authenticism and soul and it bleeds through into every photo so it was almost impossible for me to pick one.
This category was a little difficult to do because most pinups I found are also burlesque/cabaret dancers or singers, so I didn't want to categorize them incorrectly. I just went with what I saw on their feeds and which one they seemed to do more often. I hope that's okay but if (by some stroke of miracle straight from De Lawd you read this post and see your name on the list but would like me to move you) you follow anyone on here and think I have them in the wrong spot, let me know. It was also difficult because these women take such stunning pictures that I had a really hard time choosing just one to feature.
This was one of the categories I wanted to explore the most, but I found more dandies by today's standards than I did dandies who live or at least dress in the vintage style. I included a few anyway because this category was quite neglected. If you have some Black dandies on your IG feed that I missed, please let me know! I think at some point I'm going to do a couple of posts on men's vintage in general because it, too, is often underrepresented but thanks to hipsters (joking), it's making a comeback.
This category is for everyone who doesn't have a designation like the others; they simply like or dress in a vintage style. Enthusiasts, seamstresses, those who own vintage shops or those who like and share vintage photos/content. There aren't too many shops on the list yet because not all of the shop owners show their faces, so I didn't want to put a shop on here that wasn't Black-owned on accident. For the millionth time, if you have any suggestions for people to add to this category let me know.
Look at all that beautiful melanin goodness! ✊๐✊ I know my excitement about this post may sound stupid--after all, it's just a list of names, most of whom you probably already know if you follow a lot of people in the vintage community--but it's a big deal, at least for me. Not only am I extremely excited to finally put out a post idea I've had for four years, but because even though I follow most of these accounts already, it's such an awesome thing to see them as a collective rather than as scattered individual photos down my feed. It gives me a lot of pride, both in a racial sense and as a fellow lover of vintage, to see all these beautiful, creative, artistic people out there living the lives they choose and breaking molds. We have professionals and amateurs, men and women, fully Black members and biracial members, and all spectrums of orientation--there's even a trans performer on here! She's got some bitchin' legs too. lol I just love the diversity. It's like an inception of sorts. Within regular vintage we have Black vintage. Within Black vintage we have 'traditional' vintage and we have 'alt' vintage. By that I mean there are traditional pinups and burlesque dancers, then there are those who differ from the norm and that's where we get Black boylesque, nerdlesque (which I am learning is a personal favorite of mine lol), gender bend burlesque, and overall the diversity just within the Black community astounds me. So when you widen your perspective and see just how much we as a people bring to the worlds of pinup, burlesque, cabaret and even drag, it's kinda mind-blowing. Look at all that Black excellence. lol
Now for me, because I grew up already not expecting to see people who looked like me (I think there was some innate knowledge that my skin color wasn't the 'norm'), I didn't let my race limit what and who I wanted to be. I've always liked marching to the beat of my own drum, even if I ended up marching down a street opposite from everyone else. I liked what I liked and that was it. I got used to having my interests and hobbies ridiculed and called weird or being told that "Black people don't do that" in reference to things I liked or wanted to do. Nothing like being limited by your own, right? lol I got used to liking 'unique' things and contented myself with being alone with those things. That topic alone could fuel a story and a rant that would probably rival the length of this post so I'll move on. lol The more secure I became in myself the less I needed to see other people who looked like me or shared my interests because I knew I was going to be on that path whether I was alone or not, but it was that knowledge that made me so much more appreciative when I found people anyway.
Like I said in the intro, even though none of these people know me from Adam and wouldn't even recognize me as a follower if we passed each other in the street, they collectively have given me a sense of camaraderie that I didn't know I still needed. I found a lot of that camaraderie just by discovering other vintage bloggers, I didn't really care if they were Black or not. I was just grateful to see that vintage was alive, thriving, and so many people were participating in it. But when I found Black vintage, I was done. lol To see so many others who look like me, who have a similar complexion to mine, who may have suffered some of the same prejudices and issues that I have, doing so many of the things that I was called weird for wanting to participate in warms my heart.
It feels like walking in a cornfield. The corn stalks are so tall that it's impossible to see anything that's not immediately in front of or beside me. So to my view, I'm alone and since I was told before I entered the field that I would be alone, I didn't expect any different. But the further I got into the field, the more people I found as I pushed the stalks aside to make my way through. It still looks and feels like I'm walking alone, but I find new people hidden behind the next stalk all the time. I don't see them all the time, but I know definitively now that I'm not alone in the field anymore. And that feels good. Dumb analogy I know, but it works. lol
While I was doing this though, I saw just how much diversity there is in the vintage community as a whole. I love it. I would like to do this for other minority ethnicities, not for a divisive reason although I can see how it would come off that way, but because again, it's always a good thing to see people who look like you loving the same things you do.
I do have a question for anyone reading this post. I came across a few retro-style musicians but wasn't sure where to put them. I was going to put them underneath the Burlesque/Cabaret category because they're all performers but I wanted to keep it separate. I didn't find enough musicians to open up a new category, but I also haven't been looking for very long so maybe it's just that I haven't found them yet. Should I include that the next time I update this post or leave it out? Anyway, that about does it for me today. I'm sorry I've kept you here so long; I guess since I didn't say much in the actual post I figured I'd make up for it in the intro and outro. LOL I hope you've enjoyed this first week of BHS and I'll see you here tomorrow for day 8!
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