top of page

About me

As a historian of fashion, dress, and the body, I publish original scholarship that intersects with American Studies, Islamic Studies, and African Studies.  My topical interests include uniforms, political rhetoric and lawmaking about dress, museum collections, and secret society regalia. I also use historical research to write historical fiction and curate exhibits. 

When I'm not working I enjoy hiking, genealogy, spending time with loved ones and pets, and watching costume dramas grounded in history like Call the MidwifeOutlander, and The Crown.

My latest projects

Recent publications and other creative work

IMG_9883.jpeg
Divine Adornment: Community Stories of Belonging (October 2024 - May 2025)

Divine Adornment: Community Stories of Belonging displays pieces from the collection of the IU Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology to explore fashion from an Islamic perspective. The exhibit focuses on what fashion means to people from source communities and how these dress practices might inspire contemporary makers and wearers of textiles, clothing, and jewelry. It presents a nuanced and humanizing perspective on Islam that is different from what non-Muslims typically learn from mainstream media. Themes of sustainability, fashion, sound, gold and silver, headwear, and more are explored in this exhibition, which is presented in both Arabic and English.

body armor costumes.jpeg

Echoes of War: Body Armor for Safety and Fashion (2024)

When the US military invented flexible body armor in the early twentieth century, the purpose was to protect soldiers from explosions and gunfire. As the technology evolved, body armor became part of the standard equipment for combat troops; by the 1970s, police departments were starting to issue it. In the late 1980s, body armor began creeping into civilian fashion, mostly among rap musicians like Eazy-E and 50 Cent. As the equipment became more affordable and accessible to the public in the early 2000s, it spread to other subcultures in US society such as hunters and sport shooters, cross-fit athletes, and white supremacist militias. Although convicted felons are prohibited by federal law from owning or wearing body armor, it is otherwise legal in most circumstances and widely available on the Internet. In the 2020s, rappers such as Lil Baby, Kanye West, and Post Malone revived body armor as a fashion statement, collaborating with high-end brands like Louis Vuitton and Balenciaga to produce custom-made pieces for videos and televised awards shows. Compared to other military-inspired fashions (aviator glasses, trench coats, etc.), body armor is a slow-moving trend with a high financial and social cost.

former Surgeon General of the United States, Jerome Adams

Food Service Uniforms and the Symbolism(s) of Wearing a Mask (2020)

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, ‘essential workers’ in the United States ‐ including nurses, delivery drivers, grocery clerks and waitresses ‐ bore the brunt of extreme scepticism over public health measures such as lockdowns and wearing facemasks. Conflicting messages from the president, the Centers for Disease Control and state and local governments turned mask mandates into political battles. Some businesses chose to require masks for employees and/or customers, but others refused to allow them as part of the uniform.

young black men on a prison chain gang in the 1930s

Prison Uniforms on the Outside: Intersections with US Popular Culture (2020)

With the United States having the highest rate of incarceration in the world ‐ peaking in 2008 at 755 prisoners for every 100,000 residents ‐ it is not surprising that American popular culture is saturated with images of prison. Although the experience of being in prison is associated with humiliation, punishment and a lack of choice (which is antithetical to the existence of fashion), numerous films, television shows, music videos, designers and retailers have demystified and even glamorized the ‘look’ of prison.

members of the Degree of Pocahontas in California circa 1910
Playing Pocahontas: Secret Society Regalia for Women in the United States, 1900-1950 (2021)

Secret societies such as the Freemasons and Odd Fellows were very popular in the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. This article explores how members of a little-known (but uniquely American) secret society for women—known as the Degree of Pocahontas—used regalia to carry out their rituals and to engage in abstract concepts such as “womanhood” and “leadership.”

political t-shirt featuring the American flag superimposed on a cow
Freedom of Speech: A Recent History of Political T-Shirts in the United States (2019)

Since their invention in the 1930s, t-shirts have become one of the most common styles of casual clothing in the United States ‐ worn by all ages, genders and social classes. Although ‘graphic’ t-shirts have existed for decades, twenty-first-century technologies have made them much faster and easier to produce. Students protesting the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s wore black armbands and grew their hair long; today, students (and activists of all ages) are more likely to wear political t-shirts.

© 2024 by Heather Akou. Created using Wix.com

bottom of page