‘Stories of Wear & Care: The Lives of Garments and the Stories They Hold’.
‘Stories of Wear & Care: The Lives of Garments and the Stories They Hold’
This book is a collection of 24 garment-led stories gathered across six semi-structured, in-person group conversations with people from our Brunswick, Merri-bek and wider Melbourne community, as part of the ‘Wear & Care’ Research Project.
‘A Garment’s Life: Conversation Series’ was created to cultivate discussions about how we wear and care for our clothing in ways that support a “rewilding” of fashion. “Rewilding” fashion describes actions that support new cultures in how we better use, make and recreate clothing, and how we experience fashion outside of the commercial industry.
One of our key research aims was to bring together local people to learn about their practices of mending, repairing and sharing clothing that support a community response towards developing a new fashion system. The research had a particular focus on activities embraced in the home or collaboratively in the community. Taking into consideration the changing fashion landscape in Australia and shifting social values in Brunswick, Melbourne, we used garment-led interviews and storytelling to establish a safe and supportive environment in which people could share their lived experiences naturally and honestly.
Our Community Collaborators were invited to bring along a garment from their wardrobe that had been mended, repaired, or shared, or a special garment with a story behind it. We gathered groups of three to five Collaborators, with each person, in turn, presenting their chosen piece and generously sharing the tales it told, allowing each garment to guide the narrative. The clothing textures, tatters, embellishments, stains, markings, and mends were illuminated by stories of loss, change, connection, joy, optimism, and reclamation.
Local contemporary artist Jody Haines joined each session to document the clothing through photographs and to create a garment-centred portrait with each of our Community Collaborators.
Content pages in our community book, ‘Stories of Wear & Care’.
Although we began with an open but simple proposition of what to bring along, the stories themselves expanded to encompass far more than what flaw, spill or general wear and tear may have been mended, or how a garment was shared and with whom. The stories alongside the group conversations revealed intricate weavings of values, influences, motivations, memories, relationships, and practices. The garments formed markers of moments in life, statements of values, tools to signify care and to nurture relationships, and connectors between siblings, grandparents and grandchildren, mothers and daughters.
In this book, alongside the stories, we offer eight themes emerging out of the conversations that speak to both the complexity of our connections to clothes and contemporary understandings of fashion explored deeply in academic fashion discourse far beyond the purpose of this book.
The intent of this book is to celebrate the lives of garments and the stories they hold. It offers a glimpse into the humble practices embedded in the clothes that support a “rewilding” of fashion. In reading this collection, we wish to generate a deeper consideration of your own wear and care practices, captured amongst the garments living in your wardrobe. You might be a wearer, a clothing sharer, a mender, or a garment maker. In whatever way you position yourself in connection to the garments you own, wear, repair, or share, we hope you might find a little of yourself reflected within this book that inspires you to share your own garment stories.
The story of Michelle’s Jacket in our community book, ‘Stories of Wear & Care’. Image: Tess McCabe.
Portraits of some of our Community Collaborators and their garments, featured in ‘Stories of Wear & Care’. Photos: Jody Haines.
RMIT PlaceLab would like to thank our Community Collaborators for generously sharing their insights across our Conversation Series, and for trusting us with their portraits and heartfelt stories in compiling this book: Nuwan Rohitha, Joy Barrett, Sanjana Alex, Yuko Hattori, Hannah Perkins, Jingyi Luo, Clare Morgan, Elena Warden, Eloise Warburton Davies, Utkarsh Agarwal, Rosie Leverton, Michelle Loft, Cale Perrin, Muhammad Danish Saiful Rizal, Anna Cavaleri, Paula Hanasz, Olivia Sutherland, Helen Hill, Elissa Mertens, Imelda Cooney, Jodie McNeilly, Lia Vandersant and Arky Ryall.
The Team behind the Book
All of the photographs featured in this book were created by our collaborator and photographer, Jody Haines. We are very grateful to Jody for her beautiful documentation of the garments and the respectful creation of each portrait. Jody is an artist based in Naarm/Melbourne and a PhD candidate in the School of Art at RMIT University.
The design of this book was created by Tess McCabe, a graphic and web designer living and working in Brunswick, Victoria (Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung country). We appreciate the care and consideration Tess has applied in beautifully portraying this special collection.
Our RMIT PlaceLab team and project contributors involved in the Conversation Series and the creation of this book include Hayley Thompson, Louise Godwin, Nhu Bui, Frances Gordon, Kiri Delly and Brock Hogan.
This book is Printed in Victoria by Bambra Press.
Creating and releasing our community book, ‘Stories of Wear & Care: The Lives of Garments and the Stories They Hold’. Images: RMIT PlaceLab and Suzanne Phoenix.
Request a Copy of the ‘Stories of Wear & Care’ Book
If you missed the chance to grab a printed copy of the book at our exhibition, don’t worry because we have made it accessible digitally.
To request a digital copy of the book, simply send us an email via this address: hello@placelab.rmit.edu.au. Our PlaceLab Team will respond as quickly as we can, and provide you with the full digital book file.
Thank you for your patience and interest in reading our book ‘Stories of Wear & Care: The Lives of Garments and the Stories They Hold’!