Exploring workshop. Essay Collection

Futuring Fashion from Everyday Life

Lizzie Harrison and Angella Mackey

Sustainable design and wearable technology, two very different but emerging fields in fashion, share the ability to fundamentally change the way in which we consume, use and dispose of clothing. Whilst much of the new knowledge generated in these fields focuses on materials and technology developments in order to create long lasting significant ‘change’ through changing behavior or rethinking the entire fashion system, a more holistic understanding of how garments live will be essential. The everyday, an often overlooked but fundamental part of fashion practice, could therefore be considered an action space for practice-based researchers to explore constructing positive futures. We define the everyday as personal, daily interactions with garments over long periods of time. Drawing on three diverse fashion experiments that explore daily clothing practices and rituals we consider how the everyday can be utilised to enact change and create future visions. Download full PDF