I have intense childhood memories of the feelings of dressing in my winter uniform on the first day back at school after the long summer holidays. Putting the uniform on symbolised school for me, but also made me feel that I was becoming the person who was going back to study and commune again with my peers. Even more than that, I remember that I felt I was somehow transforming with the seasons, becoming primed for winter. The weights, textures, colours and shapes of each garment of my school uniform: the animal like softness of the velour hat; the serious cut of the blazer and its dense cloth; the decorous feel of the white cotton shirt, and its mentally focusing collar and tie; the swing of the navy blue wool skirt as its pleats brushed against my bare legs as I moved; all these sensations combined to affect an anticipatory, wintry emotion made up of everything that this forthcoming time might entail for me. I am still affected by the contrasting materiality of cotton or of wool and of course, the fashion industry maintains momentum by appealing to the transient, cyclical emotions that relate season to fibre, and the contrasting cut and structure of clothing.

In this conference’s context of exploring symbolic, cultural, social and technical aspects of textural intelligence and sensory communication, a school uniform, or indeed a tailored suit, or a pair of jeans can each be seen as outward signals of a style group, classified by gender, occupation or social role. But the qualities of cloth, cut, fit, position of pockets and other details sensed by the body, mean that they can also be interpreted as material manifestations of differing ways of inhabiting and experiencing the body. This in turn implies that clothing affects not just symbolic connections between people but also experiential, emotional affiliations that relate to the way in which the body is lived and used.

As medium to cover, protect, define and adorn the human body, the multifaceted nature of clothing cuts across boundaries between design, craft, sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, gender studies, psychology, cognitive science, biomechanics, neurophysiology, health and well being. My paper will draw from practice and theory in these areas and illustrate this with outcomes from my own projects . These have employed digital video, photography, drawing, and discourse analysis, and focussed on the experiences of wearers. I will explore dress as a communal medium of embodied practice, where styles of clothing also characterise styles of deportment, gesture and demeanour via the translation of their kinesthetic materiality into corporeal performance. I will interpret the human body as a dressed, sensual, social entity, that is carried through space in ways that choreograph gender, act out individuality and affiliation, animate morality and identity.

References

1.The Fabric of Society (AHRC, 2003-04); Clothing and Affect (AHRC, 2004-05); The Wardrobe and Well-being’ 2006- 2008; ‘Feeling Business-like’ 2008.