What the quarter-zip craze tells us about Blackness and respectability
24 January - 17 mins
Podcast Series
Code Switch
What does the humble, boring quarter-zip sweater have to do with respectability politics and Blackness? Apparently, a lot! When two young Black men on TikTok brought the quarter-zip into vogue for young folks, they unknowingly waded into some very long-lived discourse on Black fashion and looking "respectable." Today on the pod, we chop it up with Jonathan Square, professor of Black visual culture at Parsons School of Design, about Black fashion, and what's happening more broadly to make this pretty plain sweater the "it" garment.
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