Studio Portrait of Billie Holiday, 1948
Described in the Observer as “the product of a lifetime’s research”, The Birth of Cool is the culmination of Carol Tulloch’s work looking at dress and textiles associated with the African diaspora as well as material and visual culture an the ways these comprise, contribute to or denote identities.
As she explains on her research profile: “My current research focus is on the telling of self through the styled black body. This includes cross-cultural and transnational relations, cultural heritage, auto/biography, personal archives and what I call ‘style narratives’. I combine these approaches to consider how black people negotiate their sense of self within various cultural and social contexts locally, nationally and internationally. ”
She is a member of the Transnational Art, Identity and Nation Research Centre (TrAIN) and is the TrAIN/V&A Fellow in the Research Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Below are some more images from her book, described by D. Soyini Madison, Northwestern University, USA as follows: “The Birth of Cool makes a unique contribution to studies of dress and culture, as well as to black studies and diaspora studies. Tulloch deconstructs and reconstructs black aesthetics to open new pathways for understanding the lives and social histories of figures like Billie Holiday and Malcolm X. It is one of the most impressive works I have read in years.” –
Emmeline Cetira Thomas, 1955, Birmingham, England. Image courtesy: author’s collection.
Malcolm X, 1964, photographed by Robert Parent. Photo: Robert Parent/Getty Images.
Billie Holiday, 1954, Charles Hewitt. Photo: Charles Hewitt/Getty Images.
Find out more about The Birth of Cool on publisher Bloomsbury’s website.
Read an interview with Carol about the book in The Observer.