Theories of imperial photography argue that British imperialists sought bring visual order to dangerous colonial regions through the careful framing of photographs. Lighting, composition, and distance all worked to capture the wilds of the colonial environment and render it tame and familiar to audiences at home. The colonized native was an iconic part of the scene; her strange costumes and perceived state of undress cast her as exotic as her environs. Yet, in sharp contrast, the traditional dress of northern Sudanese women, the tobe, granted its wearer an air of civility. A length of cloth which covered a woman whenever she left the house, the tobe satisfied both imperial and local standards of modesty and social discipline. Though firmly categorized as a traditional Sudanese garment, the positioning of the tobe in British photographs was used as evidence of the success of the imperial civilizing mission. During the first decade of Sudanese independence, from the 1950s through the 1960s, the uncertainty and challenges of nation building were evident in another set of images: satirical cartoons that filled the pages of the women’s press. Unlike the ordered scenes framed by British imperialists a generation earlier, the illustrations penned by Sudanese women introduced shouting husbands, crying children, and unforgiving western fashions. Characters fell down as they struggled to walk along the street in tight dresses and high heels. Back in her tobe and flat sandals, a Sudanese woman (and her world) was righted again. The images that these women created did not speak of a tamed and civilized setting -but one that was spinning dangerously out of control. Caught in the chaos of national birth, Sudanese women held up the tobe as a beautiful and correct symbol of Sudanese identity. Through an exploration of photographs and cartoons, this paper posits that imperialists and nationalists shared symbols of social order found in traditional Sudanese women’s dress. It interweaves analysis of imperial photography with recent theories of body politics and sartorial behavior. Most significantly, this paper elevates the voices of Sudanese women who used humor and fashion to illustrate national crises.