The Memory of Clothes
Published on 3. February 2015
XVIII, 174 pages
978-94-6209-953-1 (ISBN)
Description
Once hanging static in a wardrobe or folded away in a trunk, in recent times clothes have found themselves thrown into the spotlight. The crowds that are drawn to large scale fashion exhibitions staged with increasing frequency in galleries and museums around the world offer glimpses into the meaning that we attach to these items of clothing. Apart from their aesthetic value, clothes have the ability to evoke issues of identity, of the relation of self to body and self to the world. We are able to find ourselves through the experiences of delving into our wardrobes and remembering. Clothes are thus layered with meaning since they have the power to act as memory prompts. Woven into their fabric are traces of past experiences; stitched into their seams are links to people we have loved and lost. Viewed as visual objects, clothing is not frivolous, flippant or foolish. In telling and talking about clothes, we reveal much about ourselves, our lives and the experiences that we drape around our bodies. Whether bought or handmade, passed down or reconstructed, clothes help us to construct meaning as we remember those things in our lives that matter.
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Content
Acknowledgements; Introduction; This Book .; A Mother's Love; The Red Pashmina; The Lioness, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; Into My Mother's Wardrobe; A Wardrobe of Making; The Generation Gap; My Favourite Dress: Fashion as Historical Document, Family Legacy and Imprimatur; "I'll Go Anywhere to Get out of This Damned Place!"; Mnemonikos Pateras; The Museum of Us: A Beginning; Creatures, Great and Small; Eating Beauty: Social Science, Clothing Moths and Disappearing Threads; Making Horse Blankets in the Himalayas; Songlines; Two Little Girls in Blue; To the Dedicated Follower of Fashion; Men in Suits and Dresses; My Own Skin; A History of Men's Suits: An Interlude; Suitable Material; On Kaftans: Australian Males' Reactions to Men Wearing 'Dresses'!; Dressing up; Dali's 'False Memories' of Fashion; Mardi Gras for the Boys; My Big Sister and Her Dance Dresses: A Life to Be Envied!; Brothers and Sisters - Sons and Daughters; "Having a Clean out Are You?"; My Sister's Cumbrian Wedding - A Lift in the Ford; Loved, Lost or Stolen; Why the Colour White?; Screw You, Jimmy Choo!; Offcuts; The Dress; Sweet Memories of Scent and Sweat; Changing Rooms; The Outward and Visible Sign; The Purple Jumpsuit; Story of a Dress; Epilogue; About the Contributors.
