Fashion both materializes and shapes how we view and express ourselves in addition to how we connect with other individuals and communities. International students on Cornell’s campus in the mid-twentieth century, like all college students, used dress to navigate and negotiate their multiple and intersecting identities. Due to their often highly visible presence on campus, the fashions of international students were often publicized, documented, and discussed more than that of domestic students, which is illustrated by the number of articles published by the Cornell Daily Sun and The Cornell Countryman during this period that focused on how these students dressed themselves on campus. These articles demonstrate how international students were often understood by others as representing the cultural practices and traditions of their home countries in addition to their own personal aesthetic.

Both Anjani Jivraj Mehta ‘48 and Virigina Beatrice Kauhanenuiohonokawailani Dominis Koch ‘38 navigated and negotiated their various and intersecting subject positions while dressing themselves for different activities on and around Cornell’s campus. Mehta, alongside her aunt, who attended Cornell simultaneously, were the subject of several newspaper articles that discussed how and why they wore saris on Cornell’s campus. The tone of the articles indicates how their dress practices marked them as “foreign,” despite the fact that they were well integrated within campus life. In the photograph of Mehta dressing mannequins, she is seen wearing a sari over a dark cable knit sweater along with close-toed shoes. This photograph exemplifies how she adapted the clothing she brought from home to the colder climate of Ithaca.

Sari paired with cable-knit sweater

Unknown designer, India

CFTC # #251

Gift of Professor Beulah Blackmore

This printed cotton sari was collected by Blackmore during her 1936 trip around the world. Unlike the other ensembles she collected from India, Blackmore did not use this sari to represent the dress practices of a particular ethnic group or caste. Instead, Blackmore most likely collected this sari based on the technique that was used to decorate the fabric’s surface. Block printing is a traditional surface design technique whereby different patterns and designs are transferred onto the surface of flat textiles using a carved wooden block and dye. In addition to collecting this sari, Blackmore used the printing blocks on display here to illustrate how this technique would be used to decorate textiles by hand in her courses on fashion history and design.

“Hawaiians are very much like Americans in activities, government, and point of view. The impression of Hawai’i as ‘a strange land of hula-hula dancers and palm trees’ is only superficially correct.” —Virginia Beatrice Kauhanenuiohonkawailani Dominis Koch ‘38

In another Cornell Daily Sun article, Dominis discussed the similarities between the United States and Hawai’i, which at that time was an organized incorporated territory of the United States. In the article, Dominis indicated that, while there were common stereotypes about Hawai’i which marked it as an “exotic” place, politically and socially, it was very similar to the United States. However, when Dominis modeled for the 1937 installment of “Costumes of Many Lands,” she was asked to wear a grass skirt and anklets that Blackmore purchased in Hawai’i and were made for the tourist market. Her daughters stated that if she were wearing her own pieces from home, they likely would have been either a muumuus and holokus, two types of garments worn for special occasions (personal communication, September 10, 2021). Images of her on campus, however, show Dominis wearing winter gear, which differed greatly from those fashions she would have worn at home in Honolulu.