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EliScholar > archipelagos journal > Iss. 9 (2026)

 
archipelagos: a journal of Caribbean digital praxis

Abstract

This article investigates the opportunities and challenges of building a dancehall fashion archive with particular emphasis on the transition from the material to the digital. As an artist-scholar, I use my own dancehall fashion collection as a case study to explore the process of digitizing material artifacts (in this case, fashion and textiles). I focus on dancehall fashion in particular because it speaks to themes of resistance, self-fashioning, and creativity in the global fashion market. Throughout the article, I highlight what the transition between material and digital affords scholars and public audiences. In particular, I ask: "How do we retain the integrity of the material in digital archives? How do we make digital projects on Caribbean fashion both informative and accessible? How do fashion archives create community and cross-collaboration between academics and public audiences? How might dancehall fashion databases create community between those in the Caribbean and Caribbean diaspora? After examining various opportunities and challenges, I expand this article by outlining the ways that Caribbean fashion archives can be implemented in classrooms and art galleries and museums as a form of education for public audiences. The article speaks to Caribbean studies, fashion studies, digital studies among others. This article is inspired by the work of Kevin Adonis Browne; Carolyn Cooper; Lesley Ferris; Donna P. Hope; Siobhan Meï; Deepthi Murali; Sonjah Stanley Niaah; Meha Priyadarshini; and Jonathan M. Square among others. I also draw from the ongoing work of current digital humanities and archival projects such as Boston Archives; Connecting Threads Project; Fashioning the Self; and Rendering Revolution. My article addresses topics such as digital accessibility; cross-collaboration; creative modes of resistance and allyship; and women in media. Overall, this article argues for the importance of media technologies as a way to archive material culture to ensure the futurity of textile education and Caribbean culture.

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