A Special Learning Guide
Asian American Fashion and Heritage
Cover of the May 2025 Special Learning Guide: Asian American Fashion and Heritage, a collaboration between The Fashion and Race Database and the Asian Fashion Archive.
To mark Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month, The Fashion and Race Database and Asian Fashion Archive have launched a special May 2025 Learning Guide: Asian American Fashion and Heritage. The collaborative resource offers an inviting entry point into the varied expressions of Asian fashion.
Authored by Faith Cooper and edited by Laura Beltrán-Rubio, the guide includes an introduction to Asian Fashion Archive, founded by Faith in 2020, along with study resources designed for broader audiences, such as reading lists, films, exhibitions, and projects that invite deeper engagement with Asian fashion as it relates to culture, memory, and community, both on the continent and across the diaspora.
Fashion & Market is honoured to be featured as a resource in the guide. Faith is a frequent contributor to the platform, where she authors our “Fashion & Memory” series, exploring memory, identity, and the politics of archiving within Asian fashion histories. Her recent articles have featured Auguste Soesastro of KRATON and Jodinand Aguillon of Glorious Dias. Her essay for the “My Own Words” series narrates her journey of founding the Asian Fashion Archive and the motivations behind her curatorial practice.
The Asian Fashion Archive is a digital platform dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich heritage of Asian fashion, culture, and history. It emerged in response to rising anti-Asian racism and has since evolved into a space for community, education, and inclusive storytelling. The Fashion and Race Database, meanwhile, continues its mission to illuminate under-examined histories, center racialised voices, and rethink the frameworks that help us understand fashion today.
You can explore the special May 2025 learning guide in full here.
Follow the Asian Fashion Archive on Instagram at @asianfashionarchive, and The Fashion and Race Database at @fashionandracedatabase.