Johanna Wylie-Turner

Fences by August Wilson takes place in the Summer of 1957 and skips ahead to 1965 at

the end of the show. In my research I looked for 1950’s fashion but not just any fashion…

working class fashion. Troy and Rose are not very wealthy so I could not have them in the

newest clothing of the 50’s. I also had to research what sanitation workers wore in the 50’s.

For Troy, I found a wonderful photo of some sanitation workers in the 50’s. It seemed

like they could wear any kind of jumpsuit, overalls, or work pants. I liked the look of the

jumpsuit for Troy so that is what I sketched.

Women in the 50’s most if not all dresses were worn past the knee. A working class

woman would tend to wear a patterned button down dress and it would likely have a collar. I

found these dresses absolutely adorable. For Rose, I sketched a light blue button down collared

dress. I gave her an apron and a head scarf because she is usually cooking or cleaning so these

are things that would be worn everyday by her. For her funeral attire, I sketched a similar

collared, button down dress but in black.

For Lyons, I was looking for classic African American musician attire from the 50’s. I

found the perfect picture to base his outfit off of. A collared button down under a vest with a

sport coat and dress pants and these super awesome black and white dress shoes.

For Cory, I gave him a dated football uniform. Just a white uniform with red bands

around the arms and black cleats. Raynell got a nice purple dress that goes past her knees. I gave

her puffy sleeves and a Peter Pan color which was common on little girls dresses in the 50’s