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Memories of Dress: Recollections of Material Identities , edited by Alison Slater, Susan Atkin, and Elizabeth Kealy-Morris

2023; Penn State University Press; Volume: 8; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5325/jasiapacipopcult.8.2.0251

2380-7687

A.S. Alvarez,

Fashion and Cultural Textiles

This volume compiles varied perspectives that illustrate the successful and enriching confluence of the field of fashion and theories of memory. The three editors, Alison Slater, Susan Atkin, and Elizabeth Kealy-Morris, present and frame the anthology in a comprehensive introduction elucidating the relevance of memory work within fashion and dress research. The centrality of memory within the volume is not only apparent “at the heart of its methodological and theoretical framework” (5) in the intentions set out by the editors in the introduction, but it is also achieved and maintained in every chapter of the volume. Besides outlining the different sections and chapters of the book, this co-written initial chapter offers insightful connections between the different contributions, such as the noteworthy position of “the wearer’s recollected experience” and the centrality of everyday dress practices. In addition, the editors select key terms in a more theoretical sense concerning the crucial theoretical thread of memory— “popular memory,” “collective memory,” “cultural memory,” “nostalgia,” and “myth”—while demonstrating once more the interconnected aspect of the contributions.The volume is divided into four sections. The first section follows the noticeable interest of the editors in a comprehensive inclusion of the theoretical perspectives. Consequently, Soljana Çili, in “Personal Objects and Dress as Instruments for Anchoring the Self, Remembering the Past, and Enhancing Well-Being,” develops the only chapter of the section “Concepts.” This unique chapter serves as a theoretical stand to introduce the reader to a more nuanced comprehension of the theoretical approaches between memory and objects and, specifically, memory and dress. From the field of psychology, Çili reviews perspectives on autobiographical memory concerning the sense of self and well-being and emphasizes the close relationships of the former, autobiographical memory, with objects and dress.The following three sections contain three chapters each. The sections’ titles are concise and illustrative of the content that will be found and developed: “Histories,” focused on uncovering recent past stories and history; “Objects,” with contributions led by different and specific objects; and “Practices,” offering varied examples of practice-led approaches, which are not so commonly encountered.In the second section, “Histories,” the three chapters encounter a common angle in their methodology, as oral history, oral evidence, or oral testimonies are present in each. In “Remembering Respectability: Collective Memories of Working-Class Dress in Wartime Lancashire,” Alison Slater, through the reproduction of interview fragments, elucidates and comprehends the experiences of nine women in the particular place and time of her study, as specified in the title. Zsofia Juhasz, in her “Memories of Making: Home Sewing in Socialist Hungary,” delineates her contextual and historical background while shifting her focus to reflect on the recurrent emphasis put by her interviewee—her grandmother, who suffered from dementia—on her dressmaking past and success. Completing this section, Susan Atkin and “Nostalgia, Myth, and Memories of Dress: The Cultural Memory of Madchester” also focus on a particular moment in time and place while introducing a movement concerning the working-class segment, as in Slater’s contribution. The three chapters exemplify and unravel the dialogue and integration between individual and autobiographical memories and recollections through dress and broader comprehension of collective, group, and/or cultural memory.The third section, “Objects,” starts with Jo Jenkinson’s chapter, “Wardrobes and Soundtracks: Resources for Memories of Youth,” delving into the “memory toolkits” created by the participants that accompanied the interviews on youth. The relevance and comprehension of the different components of the “memory toolkits,” particularly music and its comparison with dress objects as “mnemonic resources,” are of great value as a possible methodological approach. Ben Whyman, in “Ken Tynan’s Tommy Nutter Jacket as ‘Materialized Memory,’” conceptualizes the notion of “materialized memory” and “post-wardrobe” through the study of a single jacket located in a particular museum from a specific owner with a biographical perspective. In a similar vein, Jane Webb, in “Soft Murmurings: Sensing Inherited Memories in Collections of Dress,” departs from two gowns located at the Gallery of Costume in Platt Hall (Manchester, UK) and traces their biography back from that point, questioning the memories of previous owners, wearers, and donors of the pieces. In contrast to Whyman, Webb consciously shuns object-based methodology to explore inherited memory. The contributions of this section illustrate the potential of garments or objects of fashion in widening methodological and theoretical comprehension and approaches in the study of memory and fashion.The fourth and last section, “Practices,” gathers approaches that illustrate practice-led and practice-based research with strong autoethnographic development. These examples also broaden the geographical reach of the volume with two contributions framed in the North American context, in the United States of America. By alternating her own memories and analysis of American style, Elizabeth Kealy-Morris, in “‘The American Look’: Memories of Not Fitting In,” develops the concept of “body dressing work” to mediate her experience dressing in a disabled body and attempts to fit in during her childhood. Elizabeth Chin utilizes the making of a series of quilts challenging notions of race by unfolding the racially mixed heritage of her daughter in “Black/White/Yellow.” Chin’s chapter follows a fragmented, quilted structure in which the sections named by the race-associated colors delve into and delineate the racial inheritance and genealogy of her daughter. The last chapter of the section and volume, “Cloth(ing) Memories: Rituals of Grieving” by Lesley Beale, focuses on mourning and bereavement, which have been core and recurrent themes in the study of memory and dress. Beale’s contribution actualizes the reflection on mourning practices through clothing in a growing secular society by sharing and comparing her experience of the loss of her father and mother, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, respectively. In seeking new rituals, the author develops her artistic practice, and the front page of the volume is an example of her creations. This piece is called Soul Dress and “represents the death of the body, but the life of the soul” (206).While, in this last section, autoethnography is core to the contributors’ approaches, Slater, Juhasz, Webb, and other authors make self-reflective accounts concerning their approach, or their writing is visibly developed from an experiential angle. These approaches show their research development and personal connection to the study subject or intentions, which enhances and adds another perspective to the research that is enlightening and familiarizes the reader with research practices from another angle.As a final point, I would like to emphasize how the volume succeeds in compiling a wide range of examples of the highest academic quality with a broad range of methodologies and theoretical approaches. This volume is a valuable read for everyone, particularly fashion/dress academics interested in the subject of memory. The encouragement to further research and delving into the merged study of dress and memory is noticeable throughout the volume and contributions, which would inspire and ground future investigations.