The subject of prison clothing never really enters my mind, the image of a man in a black and white striped suit and some screenshots of A Man Escaped being the only images it conjures. Dress Behind Bars made me question why I had never given the subject a second thought. Juliet Ash discusses its development in detail, framing the subject in contemporary thought, political and social reforms and financial restraints, making the subject compelling by putting it in context.

Apparently, my lack of knowledge on prison clothing is understandable, given that the image of the striped prison uniform is in itself misleading. The black and white striped uniform was abolished by 1914 in most American prisons. Regardless, early American films adopted this notorious uniform into the cinematic vocabulary as a shorthand to depict criminals. Some examples are Charlie Chaplin’s The Adventurer (1917) and Buster Keaton’s Convict 13 (1920). The resultant fictional stereotype was that of the “heroic underdog humiliated by clothing.”

Ash draws upon contemporary contexts to further the reader’s understanding of the development of prison clothing beyond its depictions in popular culture. For example, let’s dig deeper into the end of the black-and-white striped uniform. At the turn of the century, when prisoners were still wearing the striped uniform in America and the broad arrow in Britain, the fin-de-siècle fashion system outside of the walls was marked by “public participation in the novel and the new.” The stark contrast between these conditions increased the level of humiliation endured by the prisoners. This, along with the realization that prison clothing is a highly ineffective instrument for rehabilitation, motivated penal reforms in the first decades of the twentieth century. The result was the eradication of “uniforms that visibly stigmatized.”

Ash then investigates the aftermath of this abolition and finds that harsh conditions still existed. In the spirit of 1920s America, prisoners provided cheap labour that fuelled the American economy. This influenced the subsequent prison clothing regulation in that prisoners’ productivity levels became a priority. In Auburn prison, the striped uniform was replaced by “workwear greys.” Compared to America, British penal reforms developed at a much slower pace. The use of clothing with broad arrow was still visible well into the 1930s. The Depression further encouraged the lack of progress in that production of new clothing was only to commence after “articles, and materials [had been] used until exhausted.”

The part of Dress Behind Bars that I love the most is its bibliography. Ash has considered an amazingly wide variety of prison diaries, going as far back as the 1800s. These include personal accounts from Sylvia Pankhurst, Mahatma Gandhi, Oscar Wilde and Charles Dickens. Written from first-hand experiences, they vividly realize the extent to which prison clothing conditions evoke humiliation or resistance. In addition, she dedicates half a chapter especially to “descriptive autobiography” of inmates writing about their sartorial experiences throughout their time in prison. Of course, Dress Behind Bars is also contextualized within published works of notable costume historians such as Christopher Breward and Rebecca Arnold.

Impressive as it is, there is a downside to this A-list bibliography and Ash’s thorough analytical approach. As a book that opens a new topic and is based on original research, Dress Behind Bars is a bit hard to approach. While sticking to a chronological order, the much more complicated connection in the chain of causality often leads to arguments that are sporadic in the temporal sense (read: confusing). So, no, it’s not really a summer read. I would however, recommend it for those winter days as you sit by the fire clinging to survival. You will learn so many cool facts about the history of prison clothing that will surely come in handy for a few Did-You-Know’s at next spring’s cocktail parties.

Dress Behind Bars: Prison Clothing as Criminality by Juliet Ash, I.B. Tauris, 2010.
Reviewed by Marsya Maharani

When I discovered Cliff Muskiet’s website my sister and I engaged in an hour-long contest over who could find the wackiest stewardess uniform. (Her money was on the oil rich countries. I went for those with names like “Lion Air.” She won.) Cliff has received international attention for his collection, even appearing on television in Germany, the UK, Russia, and here in Canada. And with good reason, his collection currently sits at 820 airline attendant uniforms – all in pristine condition.
Herewith, the “uniform freak” in his own words:

In the beginning…
Ever since my early childhood I have been fascinated by civil aviation. The first flight I made (and that I can remember) was from New York to Amsterdam in 1970. I was five years old. I slept during the whole flight and when we arrived in Amsterdam, I was so disappointed because I couldn’t remember anything about the flight. I began to draw airplanes and I started to cut airplane pictures out of travel magazines. Every month I would go to Amsterdam and visit the airline offices and I would come home with bags filled with postcards, posters, and folders about the airlines and airplanes. I also cleaned airplanes in the summertime at Schiphol Amsterdam Airport when I was 15, 16, 17, and 18 years old.

My unique collection began in 1980, when I was given a KLM uniform. It was an old uniform from 1971. My mother was a nurse and she had a colleague who also was a part-time stewardess. At that time I thought, “This is great, I want to have more uniforms!” In 1982 I got two other uniforms from two Dutch charter airlines that changed uniforms that year. From 1982 until 1993 I didn’t do much to obtain more uniforms, something I really regret now because I could have many more. Ten years later, in 1993, I was in Accra in Ghana working for KLM, when I obtained some old Ghana Airways uniforms without any problem. When I received these uniforms, I started to contact other airlines. Most of my 800 uniforms were obtained between 1993 and today.

Hey, um, got any old uniforms?
I don’t tell strangers how I get my uniforms. That is my little secret! However, a lot of people send me a message through my website to inform me that they have something for my collection. This afternoon I received a uniform from a very friendly lady in Australia. She donated her Qantas uniform to me. She really made my day.
The fact that the airline uniforms are very hard to get makes my hobby even more special and unique. When I get a new uniform I am happy like a small boy and I get very excited! You can’t buy the uniforms in a shop or order them online. There are not many people that collect stewardess uniforms and – as far as I know – I have the biggest collection in the whole world. I am really proud of that.

The art of storing over 800 uniforms in your apartment.
I live in Amsterdam, near the airport. I have all my uniforms at home and I want to keep [them there] as long as I can. It would feel really strange to have my uniforms stowed somewhere else. My uniforms are like my little babies and you don’t put your babies away, do you?
All my uniforms are stowed in closets, containers, garment bags, boxes, and suitcases. When you come to my home you will not see any uniforms. All uniforms are put away in two special rooms. When you have to stow so many uniforms and items you get very handy using all the space you have in your apartment. I am very fortunate to live in a big apartment with three bedrooms so I have lots of space. If I ever want to move I need at least three bedrooms!
I don’t really have a cataloging system in place. I have most airline uniforms from the USA and Canada in two closets and I have most airlines from the UK, Asia, and Middle East hanging together. That’s all. On the containers I put little notes with the names of the airline uniforms that are in there so that I don’t have to open everything to see what is in there. Usually I know where to find a particular uniform, but sometimes I need some time to look for a uniform because I don’t know where it is stowed.

So, why airline attendants?
Because I like civil aviation (and everything that has to do with civil aviation) I am also interested in the uniforms. When I think of an airplane, I think of a stewardess. And when I think of a stewardess, I think of a uniform! The funny thing is: if [they were] uniforms worn by hostesses on a ship or train I would not be interested in them at all. I would get rid of the uniforms right away!

Gauging trends.
Male uniforms all look the same: jacket, pants, plain shirt, and a tie. Most men’s uniforms are dark blue – quite boring! The ladies uniforms are so different, you can see the changes in fashion throughout the years. There are so many different uniform items like the jackets, skirts, blouses, dresses, pants, vests, cardigans, and hats. The great variety of accessories makes the [women’s] uniforms so different and special. The blouses usually have colourful prints, stripes, dots, or airline logos. Scarves can have beautiful and colourful designs. Some uniforms have a hat and I love uniform hats! The hat is like the icing on the cake, it makes a uniform complete and stand out in the crowd.

Going the distance.
I am a purser with KLM. One day I had to fly to Singapore for work and I had some days there to rest. On one of my days off in Singapore I took a plane to Hong Kong (that’s a three and a half hour flight) went to the Cathay Pacific office at the airport to pick up an old uniform and flew back to Singapore that same afternoon.
Some people say I am crazy for flying all the way from Singapore to Hong Kong, but I enjoyed every bit of it and would do it again if I had to.

What do you have your eye on next?
I love the uniforms from the 70s. Most uniforms then had a hat, a short skirt, and shirts with big, pointy collars. In those years a lot of colours were used in psychedelic combinations and patterns. Some airlines [I’m looking for] are: Alitalia, Air France, and Japan Airlines.
My big dream now is to make a nice book about my collection, a nice book with beautiful pictures of the uniforms worn by professional models. A graphic designer has already made a show model for the book, but the only thing we need to find is a publisher.

-Sara Forsyth