A synthesis of meaning and experience in fashion by Ever Lavén

Ever Lavén

A SYNTHESIS OF MEANING AND EXPERIENCE IN FASHION

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Student

Ever Lavén

Title

A synthesis of meaning and experience in fashion

Program

Fashion MA at The Royal College of Art, 2021

Word count

9887 - Porfolio of three essays

Tutor

Thomas Turner

Keywords

Agential realism, Agency, Architecture,

Autoethnography, Epistemology, Materialism,

Ontology, Phenomenology

A SYNTHESIS OF MEANING AND EXPERIENCE IN FASHION

Abstract

This is a portfolio of three poetic essays, exploring the meaning and

To my mother Viveca and father Peter

experience of fashion through concepts of autoethnographic research,

who generously shared their life stories,

a phenomenological view influenced by philosophy of architecture

because of you I am me.

and a post-humanistic approach of metaphysics and physics through the concept of agential realism. The first essay is a self-reflective

An acknowledgement of gratitude to my tutor Thomas Turner that

and investigatory piece of text confronting the writer’s background,

introduced me to a new genre of writing and encouraged me to make the

demonstrating the impact it has on the perception of clothing and the

most of my investigative self-reflective story with pivotal suggestions to

conflicting emotions of a career as a fashion designer. This links to the

tie this work together. I also want to thank my friend Carl, who always

second essay, investigating the experience of fashion and the role and

challenges me with the interest in the process of our respective artistic

authority of the designer. With guidance from philosophical contributions

practices and my life partner Benjamin who is a source of inspiration to all

of phenomenology in architecture such as Juhani Pallasmaa’s book The

of my thought making with our unconditional discussions. Thank you for

Eyes of the skin and the podcast Architecture Talk by Vikramaya Prakash,

your support,

fashion is placed as a phenomena between ontology and epistemology.

you all contributed to these texts.

This sets the tone for the third and final essay of this portfolio where the focus is brought to immaterialism and materialism and why it matters,

Ever

anchored in physicist Karen Barad’s theory of agential realism. The outcome is a broad understanding of agency and the accountability that follows, generating and suggesting a methodology for the practical work of the designer.

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CONTENTS

Prologue

5

I

The hand-me-down coat

8

II

What I learned listening to architects

26

III

Methodology of immaterial and material matters

34

Bibliography

43

PROLOGUE

I have never fully reflected on why fashion matters so much to me, but I have indeed questioned it. Conflicting emotions towards the desire to pursue a career in fashion, an industry that is wasteful, artificial and meaningless to so many people but yet so dear to me. This portfolio consists of three essays, aimed at a personal discovery and contribution to my area of discipline in defining the meaning of fashion.

While exploring the theoretical framework I recognized that there was very little insight from practitioners of fashion, a motivation which led me to discover the concepts that would establish my methodology and philosophy. With the use of a poetic style of writing I invite the sensitivity of the reader to introduce that the fashion industry is in need of being revitalized in rhetoric and philosophy. A compelling narrative that seek to demonstrate the significance of the role of the designer, thus fashion design. I wish for these essays to give poise and significance to peers in the art of fashion and to awake curiosity for anyone who needs to understand it as a meaningful cultural human practice.

In these essays I have attempted to use methods, primary and secondary sources that felt innovative but appropriate for the research.

For the first essay, The hand-me-down coat, I establish and contextualize my own voice and confront my background through an interpretive qualitative ethnographic research. My primary research was conducted as interviews with my parents, deciphering the political and societal 4

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A Synthesis of Experience in Fashion

5

codes that our common attitude of clothes is burdened with. With autoethnography the researcher is considered a vital part of the research data and the writing is an analysis acknowledging what values and interest that, I myself, bring to the project.1 It should be stated that an autoethnographic piece is no site for argumentation from the interview part, but my representation of it, which could be questioned by ethical terms. Although, my experiences are unconsciously affecting my outcomes and therefore this methodology can unlock important aspects to my contributions and in this case

not assigned to any object, physical or metaphysical, but occurring in a ”When autoethnography works, it evokes not only a sympathetic response and a reflexive questioning of the connection of one’s own life to the story, but also a desire to correct the injustice(s depicted.”

Arthur

Bochner

Carolyn

Ellis,

Autoethnography Lives

:

Writing

Telling

Stories.

Routledge,

2016),

and

(London:

and Evocative

led to a satisfactory conclusion for my part. Fundamentally

p. 57.

question of responsibility and accountability. Matters, non-human and human are entangled with one another in the universe, which makes no text original or without the impact of others’ influence.2 With this final piece I wanted to respond to how we can make understanding of fashion through material empathy and suggest that a focus on materiality would lead to a more mindful practice for designers and consequently affect consumption patterns based on principles of longevity. The research became a methodology for my continued practice, aligned with the ideology of challenging established systems of sizing. Along with the sources mentioned, Laurene Vaughan’s Practice based design research

I wanted to assess this idea of giving something back to the

initially inspired me to write from a maker’s perspective to academic

people we perform research on.

research. These essays became key for me to battle my diffidence

Leaving my own story, I return to this issue the second essay,

and to discover new paths in my practical work. The perspective of

What I learned listening to architects, of how our products need to possess

autoethnography, phenomenology and agential realism are all exposing

qualities that reflect the story of our inspiration. The research question

the reality and positive aspects of the thinkers personal experience,

that guided this piece of text is asking what fashion can learn from

observations, values and our resistance of them. The outcome of these

architecture, and by so, compare and locate the limitations of the fashion

essays was not only an adequate journey, but it allowed me to develop

discipline and where we need to expand on it further. With architectural

a philosophical foundation and methodology for my continuous practice.

practices and a phenomenological approach I was able to identify

The writing and the research has become a part of the making, intending

problematic areas of fashion. In writings and podcasts, architects inform

to answer why fashion and its practice is meaningful and how it can be

me that designers need to formulate our own disciplinary framework

understood, studied and nurtured.

around the fashion experience, rooted in skill, heritage, culture and time. My conclusion places fashion as a research subject in between epistemology and ontology.

The personal experience and the subjectivity that follows, can be an item of critique on a scientific scale which I try to challenge in my third essay, Methodology of immaterial and material matters, with the use of Karen Barads concept of Agential realism. Where agency is 6

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1 Arthur Bochner and Carolyn Ellis, Evocative Autoethnography:Writing Lives and Telling Stories (London: Routledge, 2016), p. 70.

2 Karen Barad, Meeting the Universe Halfway:Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning (Durham: Duke University Press, 2007), p. 185.

A Synthesis of Experience in Fashion

7

ONE

The hand-me-down coat

industry I ventured into was hiring designers only to create for the unremarkable display of repetitive clothes in the battle of commercial value and recognition. The artistic significance was becoming obsolete.

In recent years, many people had rightfully begun to moralize patterns of consumption and question the production methods in quantity, quality and labour and its causes. I questioned too. I reasoned myself to pledge my choices and in 2020 I concluded to return to university for my master degree in fashion studies. My research was essentially about how I could make justice to my practice. This essay is a fragment of this ethos, a confrontation of my own background, to understand what shaped me to become a fashion designer and why fashion was significant. Why did

My parents were not surprised nor avid when I declared I was

fashion evoke so much interest and joy for me? Emotions that at the

attending fashion studies. After all, they knew that I was committed

same place and time were so placid and lifeless to my parents. When

to all my endeavors and aspirations. My own biggest concern was

going back to these years, I recognize an immediate sentiment in me. The

the lack of support and a cultural foundation. This was also the main

travels and adventures as a family, the promise of an upbringing in safety

objective of my Bachelor degree studies abroad. My studies in Paris

and love, in the sanctuary of a home. We were to the outside world

and London put me in the true mythical environment of knowledge, a

the quintessential middle class family, while my parents worked hard for

driving force that summarized my devotion. Smitten and romanticized

this, in reality there were struggles that we never disclosed to others. The

by the storytelling fashions of John Galliano and Rei Kawakubo, I was

family drama was covered by somber evenings of performative conduct.

not let down by the support and sensitivity the education had to offer.

At the dinner table, we seldom had vivid discussions. We would never

Nonetheless, I found myself affected by my parents’ lack of compassion

talk about ourselves, our interests or dreams. I think of it as too intimate

in my studies. I believed it was just a frivolous fad to them. My research

and palpable. This situation was often enclosed and heartened by my

and developments during these years was becoming an intermittent

fathers ability to take on any room. When not buried in work, he told

path of doubt, that left me in disbelief of myself as a future maker

us stories of history, of his day, his meetings and accomplishments. He

and designer. Returning to the place that once was home got harder

was by all means a voluble and talented leader. His presence of height,

and these emotions kept me quiet at a distance as I had little to rest

his loud voice and big hands were impressive and I was very proud of

on where I once came from. This was all I had. After my graduation

him. Although successful, he was not adept for the personal challenges

and in the beginning of my career I found that my enthusiasm for

a relationship can have. My mother, in contrast, is a small and tender

fashion had slowly begun to shift to a feeling of anxiety. The fashion

woman with soft blond locks. Her empathic and caring attributes were

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A Synthesis of Experience in Fashion

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the foundation of our talks, if we had any. Despite all her efforts to be

the long and cold snowy winters. A commodity rather than necessity. I

the best mother for me and my two brothers, we saw and knew that

do acknowledge and value my parents’ past as a part of my presence and

her fragility was the result of her husband’s shortcomings. Now, many

insights to this essay. I begin my conversation with my mother by asking

years have passed since they divorced, and for the five of us life has

about the rituals of clothing in her childhood home.

moved on in different directions. I sometimes see a sliver of my mother

”It was another time back then you know. In the 1950’s we very

and father in my reflection. Melancholic. In the same account, I was

rarely bought any clothes. My mother and father were working class and

unhappy about depicting them in any part of me in that mirror. I often

we did not have a lot of money and we never threw away anything,” she

felt as if my family never got to know me and the things that my own

says. I have noticed an anticipation of shame in her when we approach

journey brought out of me. I had to investigate my background story

this subject but I encourage her to continue.

to situate my despair and replace it with prospect. With this brief fast

”Because of this, we could not wash our clothes that often. I

forwarding of a little life, the acumen of initializing talk and questions

was accustomed to grass stains on my trousers and a grease spot from

with my parents is very strenuous. It will take me weeks to even pick up

last week’s soup. Garments were patched, faded and worn to rags until

my phone to make these calls. To my mother and my father and each

they gave in to be used as remnants for cleaning,” she goes on telling me.

to their own, fill in the gaps and respond to my wonderings. I wanted

“It was foremost about keeping warm. Clothes were made at

to know about their own reflections of their dressing procedures and

home on the sewing machine or knitted by hand. All women knew how

interest as children in clothes and how this progressed throughout their

to knit and sew.”

lives. How does this echo in me? Impediments that coated my outcomes.

Traits that were taken for given by the women in her family

Both of my parents happen to originate from the coast in the north

unrelated to clothes making. A female devoir. Her sister Rita was keen

of Sweden, Luleå. A garrison town built on steel industry and forestry,

at sewing.

close to the polar circle and not too far off from the Finish border. They

“She made me a pair of trousers, I wore them every day!” My

were of working class descent, whose relatives were from traditional

mother says. She did develop her own interest in textiles and handicraft

occupations, representative of the rural parts in Sweden. Military,

work in sewing clothes for her toy dolls. Her own interest in handicraft

farmers and woodworkers. Indigent, most things were accomplished

was very treasured by me when I grew up. She even had a loom in the

in their homes by hand. Unfortunately, I never took the opportunity

basement, that I never saw her make use of. I ask her if she remembers

to speak about these matters with any of my grandparents, so now

how they got dressed for a day.

1

when they all have passed I will let my parents voice the conditions and

“There was not a lot to choose from in our closet, we did not

experiences. I had often been told, that when my parents were young,

have our own clothes anyway. There was a common closet that we all

clothes was never about expression or to dress up, it was about layers of

shared and clothes were handed down from the elder siblings to the

practicality as a protection of the short and mild summers of rain and

younger ones. I remember that even other families bestow us clothing

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A Synthesis of Experience in Fashion 11

that their own children had outgrown.” My mother says she recognized

of him. My grandfather always wore a shirt or a polo jersey and had his

that it was uttermost important to fit in, that there was a fear of being

white beard perfectly trimmed. My mother tells me that there was a

bullied and standing out because of the clothes. Especially when being

difference of upbringing for the couple Rolf was from the better part of

poor. I wonder how involved and interested my grandmother was in this

town, whereas my grandmother, one out of nine siblings, grew up in the

everyday procedure and she responds,

countryside outside Luleå. According to my mother, Barbro was not so

“I was mostly inspired by my older siblings for how I wanted to

fond of her mother-in-law for her pretentiousness. Preconceptions of a

look. But my mother Barbro picked out clothes for us to wear for the day

lady from the city. Even if Rolf did enjoy dressing up, my mother lets me

but without any specific aesthetic mindfulness. She was not so concerned

know that when she was growing up he often expressed contempt for

about her own clothes and what to wear either.” My own memory of my

people who overdressed. Astound over the vanity of the youths. During

grandmother’s clothes are significantly aligned with what my mother

their own parents’ lifetime, clothes were functioning as a distinction or

tells me. I often found my grandmother in her chair, comfortably in

conformation of class. The people of their society had a very firm idea

joggers or in woven slacks with a drawstring waistband. She would

of what rich and poor people looked like.2 Parading the refined and that

wear a jersey t-shirt, sometimes in a knitted sweater she likely made

one was educated, to avoid being mistaken for uncivilized workmen and

herself. I believe she liked colours in pastel, muted pink and lavender. She

peasantry. Interestingly and importantly, my grandparents belong to

would always inspect her visitors. Looking you up and down, in no ways

the first generation to be born into an equal and universal suffrage for

discreetly. Sometimes she would pinch a bit of fabric from my clothes

women and men in Sweden. Political tension, high unemployment rates

between her fingers to feel the lint and correct her glasses to ask,

in the Swedish recession of the 1920’s would initialize a coalition of a

”How much was this?” My mother verify my memory and my grandmother’s anxiety over the price of clothes.

government that would achieve a democratic representation in Sweden.3 The welfare state was formed, financed and built on the idea of a

“Yes, she was always very interested in the cost of things.” I do

cooperation of government, employers and unions to increase production

suspect she cared, so much that it troubled her. In the same way I had

within the industry. The notion of ’Folkhemmet’ cultivated during the

experienced my own parents disregard of interest in attire. I read my

upcoming decades, building a system of social benefits with protection

grandmother’s negligence as obedience to the discerning of the society’s

from unemployment, of health insurance and old age-pensions financed

dress codes of class. Clothes separating ‘us’ from ‘them’, the ones who

by taxes on workers and employers.4 During the Two world wars, Sweden

could afford and they who could not. By not paying attention to it, it

had declared itself unattached to any allies through a policy of neutrality.

was only to blend in and evade the politics it really was conveying. In

However, goods had to be allotted as measures to be able to provide

the contrast of my grandmother, my mother resolutely recalls that her

for all of the population. Textiles and clothes were rationed by law up

father Rolf was “very vain.” At least to her, much more aware and caring

until the end of WW2. 5 There was an emphasis to improve everyone’s

about his appearance than her mother. This resonates with my memory

economy and thereby the dilution of class. The delineation of dress

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A Synthesis of Experience in Fashion 13

would thereby alleviate but not entirely. But for my grandparents, it was already marked by a collective memory in rations and representations.

that we had to embroider our own initials on.”

He remembers festivities as extraordinary because he was dressed

Here I decided to pick up with my fathers relationship to

in a white shirt and tie, and a pullover on top. When he turned 14 years

clothing. The phone call in April 2021 is the first exchange we ever have

old he began working at the men’s outfitter Bergmans Herrekipering.

about these matters and his response does not take me by surprise. He

By no particular interest in clothes, he just found an advert and needed

chuckles and tells me that when I handed this question to him his initial

a job. Even so, there was a young man working there, a few years older

thoughts were just, ”Clothes?! What clothes?” I am unruffled and curious

than himself that made an impression on my father with his outfits.

about his response.

“I found him really cool. So I bought my first two piece suit, the

”Can you please clarify?” I continue and he explains,

same as he wore. It was brown and in wool with a stitched press fold. A

“Growing up, one did neither consider nor make a lot of thought

suit jacket without sleeves…”

around clothes and what people were wearing”. Our conversation begins

“You mean a vest?” I interrupted.

trembling but as we go along he begins to tell me about the younger

“Well yes and no, in the function but it was based on a suit

years up in the north. Walking around in a pair of felted shoes that

jacket but just without the sleeves attached, it was a modern look in the

became awful and soaking when wet.

late 60’s.” The trousers had an itchiness lacking lining on the backside of

“In fact, clothes were nothing that one reflected about until other people were questioning them. I remember this now” Around the

the thighs. He remembers buying the same pair of The Hutton Playboy Chukka boot, famously worn by Steve McQueen.6

time of relocation to Stockholm he had his first encounters of thoughts

My father recollects that his mother Anita was complimenting

about clothing. He was 11 years old and another boy was snickering over

him for his sense of fashion, a way of calling someone a dandy in the

his pointy shoes, a pair of winklepickers. When his female friend showed

Swedish language. He believes that Anita herself had quite an interest in

up at class with a pair of trousers with a front zip closure, he learned how

fashion and went shopping for him at the low price department stores

adventurous and individualistic ideas of dressing made people scorn. Girls

EPA and KappAhl. My father thinks she was influenced by traveling

were supposed to wear a trouser with a closing on the side. He mentions

with my grandfather. She loved the mediterranean climate, visits to

the worries of being in the wrong and the sensitivity of standing out

Spain and Greece would have inspired her in colours and patterns.

were definitely present. My father is the oldest of three children in his

I don’t remember my grandmother very much, I remember her being

family, which meant that he was first in line for new clothes among his

tan and wearing makeup, that she was somewhat a fancy looking lady.

siblings. His relationship to specific garments are mostly related to his

I’m impressed by my father’s recollection of the textiles and sensory

engagement in sport and leisure activities.

experience in garments, and I begin to visualize and relate to the

“As a young boy I wore training jackets and blue shorts to play

experience of uncomfortable materials against the skin. I make notes

football in. They were given to us at school and came in a drawstring bag

about wool slacks, gabardine trousers and the excitement of the arrival

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A Synthesis of Experience in Fashion 15

of the jeans trouser, corduroys and bell bottom jeans with nylon jackets or shirts to wear on the upper body; how the popular culture had a big impact on what people wore. As a teenager he got into competitive road bicycle racing, a team sport with cycling peers with the least interest in sartorial matters. Instead his interest for cycling jerseys emerged. I see a smirk on his face through the screen of our call when he exclaims, “Ohh.. An italian professional team jersey was a real dream garment!”

When my mother and father met as teenagers in the summer of 1969, both their families had migrated for work in the suburbs of the capital Stockholm. Not only just relocating, but also a move in their own social mobility and journey of class. By the time my parents were born in the mid 1950’s, the societal changes had boosted the economy, wages and an overall better living situation for most of the Swedish population.7 The emergence of the retail phenomena and companies such as IKEA and H&M was founded, with products of low cost for a high revenue, offering modernity in contrast to the specialist stores and conservative notions of goods.8 Shopping signified a democratic choice, low prices and availability for everyone. My mother recalls the improvement and the changes it had on her life, “We had one boutique in Saltis where we lived. This is where I bought my first clothes at the age of 14, for the first money I ever made myself. It was two t-shirts. Then I took the train to Slussen and bought a pair of denim jeans on Domus. I was so proud of myself”. My mother began working full time in the city central at the age of 16 and remembered buying clothes at H&M. “I went there a lot, I bought something every month when I had my salary paid. We were made to believe that we were doing good by shopping, consumption made our nation’s finance prosper hence that A Synthesis of Experience in Fashion 17

16 E V E R L A V É N Fig 2

MY FATHER PETER IN MALLORCA 1973

the society would improve”. This proved to become conflicting objectives of the old and the new world. In the context of the late 1960’s and beginning of 1970’s, there was an emergence of social- and solidarity movements in Sweden alike many parts of the world. For women and the environment, the counterculture and world peace. As the social activities would begin to characterize political attitudes, clothes became unspoken totems of the spirit of those times.9 Dressing-down was to be associated with expressing societal dissatisfaction and questioning the capitalist systems and consumption of goods. A criticism that was brought up by the forefront federation of retail trade KF, whose advice strived for democratic and sustainable consumption strategy for the Swedish population making the individual independent from the vanity of fashion and unnecessary attachment to material.10 Balancing democracy and capitalism. This event led to launching of a concept of unbranded basic wardrobe staples as a uniform with focus only to resolve everyday needs of dressing, a trace that we still can see in today’s minimalistic and sombre aesthetics of Swedish fashion.11 I have noticed that none of my parents refer to clothes as fashion, or the Swedish word ‘mode’.

They refer to clothes as clothes. The notion of fashion was a stigmatized matter that one wasn’t supposed to put visible effort into, but a pragmatic one, as certain garments symbolized the very resistance of it. None of my parents were directly politically engaged, but this was the zeitgeist.

Clothes were a marker of class. Clothes were a conspicuous element that was not supposed to take a big part of one’s life. In workplaces dress codes still were principal, to avoid distraction from the individual person.

But that even became a compelling aspect in working in the city. My mother says she wanted to obtain this identity. A working girl in a skirt and heels. This was before she was educated to become a nurse. My father spent most of his life working in business. He testifies that the A Synthesis of Experience in Fashion 19

18 E V E R L A V É N MY MOTHER VIVECA IN 1972

Fig 3

dress codes in the 1980’s and 90’s were becoming quite strict. The palette ranged from black to grey. He pondered a while on what he and his business companions used to wear, pointing out: “Back then we had no sense of how to wear a shirt, how it should fit, you know.” I wonder, “Having ‘no sense’? Does that mean that you didn’t have a real interest in dressing?”

“I guess so” he responds. “I think there has definitely been a certain shame to be too trendy and too aware in Sweden.”

In the new structures of modernity, success was not in the clothes people were wearing but in the amount of work one did. You couldn’t just change yourself to your individual liking, you earned a becoming, by working.

unnecessarily.”

This idea that clothes have different values depending on occasion, made me develop quite a complex relationship to clothes. It seemed like the nicer clothes were less joyful. They were more like a costume. The unbleached wool tights, elasticated gusset slowly slithering down itchy legs, restricting my thighs to fully stretch out when sitting down playing on the floorboards. I remember my fathers trauma of itchy and ill-fitted clothing reflecting on my own experience. More than liking them, I disliked them. I felt restricted in my clothes. They could really change my mood, make me emotionally vulnerable. Even worse, make me into someone who didn’t belong with the rest of the group.

Of all my family members I believe my grandfather Ingvar was the most important figure to me in terms of developing creatively. My

I was born in the mid 1980’s in Stockholm. The same year, my

grandfather was a remarkable person of warmth, skilled as a craftsman

parents had rattled together for a beloved wooden renovation object of a

with endless creativity. He raised me to truly believe that everything was

house in the suburbs. In the notion of Folkhem, my home was a central

possible to make. He illustrated and drew small books of small tales for

place for my upbringing. An ordinary day would entail being around the

me to read and look at. History, people and their stories were important

house, my parents working outdoors, doing gardening or building, and

to him. His ability to make friends with people from all over the world

me playing with my siblings or friends most often outdoors in the nearby

made him bring exciting gifts to me. Candy in artificial colours that was

woods. My own relationship to clothing in the earlier years of my life is

too hard to chew and too sweet, chocolate that tasted of bitter flavored-

very bleak. My parents did not spend much money on clothing for us. I

liquor, none of which I particularly liked, but I was fascinated by them

am told that I, like my parents, was given clothes from my cousins and

as they were from another world than mine. Once I was given two lamé

my older brother. My mother also made clothes for me. She reminds

polyester Romani dresses, full of frills, laces in the most striking pink and

me of how there was a difference between everyday clothing and this

pastel blue fabrics, they wore a heavy scent of chypre and rose. They

idea of dressing up. Putting on your best clothes was something we did

resembled nothing of the minimalistic Scandinavian culture I grew up in.

for the exterior world, in a sense it would mean that my parents indeed

Despite me being a tomboy I found these items beautiful in their own

understood the significance of fashion. My mother explains to me,

way and I treasured them dearly when I at most times could find very

”We spent a lot of time at home and there was no need for anyone to

femininely coded attire objectionable. Through my grandfather I found

dress up and look good. We would not wear and tear on our finer clothes

inspiration to look further than my own world as I knew it. Before the

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A Synthesis of Experience in Fashion 21

age of 12 my mother decided for me what to wear. It was around this

a blank space in me and becomes a way for me to offer the meaning

time I learned that my parents were quite unaware or almost troubled

of clothing back to them. The approval I once was seeking myself.

by my curiosity and wish to present in a certain way. The affinity and

Clothes were trivial in relation to the vast financial hardship they found

interest for fashion were not shared with the other members of my

themselves in at times. And with the financial turn in society, the freedom

family. I remember it as a feeling of unrequited love. I wanted my parents

would be questioned and moralized. When I relocated a couple of years

to be influential to me, to teach me about life and guide me in finding my

ago I found a poetry book given to me by my grandmother Anita for my

own identity and not submitting to everyone else’s. But this was often

11th birthday. The forepage had a short text in her handwriting: “To think

being argued as reprehensible and not understood as important values

freely is great, but to think rightly is greater”. A quote from 18th century

of aesthetics and politics and a topic of passion for me. Their ignorance

poet Thomas Thorild, intending encouragement of social values and

and moralization was my social handicap. Like them I experienced

avoiding deviant behaviour.12 A clue of how deeply intertwined we are

situations of feeling an outcast because of wearing the wrong clothes at

by our roots. By being aligned with the idea to fit in, my parents believe

the wrong place. Around my early teenage years I began shopping for

they were being graceful by not acquiring excess and at the same time

myself at the budget stores in the local mall. Despite my parents attitude

having the wish to show that they were no longer at the bottom. To stay

towards clothing, I found that visual expression obtained a certain power

out of social debt. A perfect synthesis that needed no perfection. Fashion

and allure. I looked at music videos and movies, quickly to discover that

is not about excess, it is about agency, accountability of responsibility.

clothes inhabited fictive strength and a cover, to acquire attention and in

It is the stains on the trousers. The conversation we have around it. It is

my case resisting the normality. I couldn’t understand why my parents

a social glue. Remembering where you come from and where you want

did not make use of this opportunity of shape shifting. I went through

to go. The ability to materialize beyond what is already there. Fictive or

my teenage years experimenting with my appearance by dying my hair

real.

purple, cutting it off, bleaching it and shaping it into spikes. I wore a

I am about to hang up with my mother when she asserts to me

messy grunge look that moved on to an oversized skate period and then

that today she does care and she doesn’t wear just anything, and that

to feminine clothing and further to a more punk inspired look. Though

what she wears needs to correlate to her self image. Through the screen

I am still exploring, it is with less trouble and with more manoeuvre.

of my computer, I can see the wallpapers of flowers in her room, the

By examining my backstory I allowed myself to have a profound and

cushion covers and the curtains in intricate patterns. The thoughtfulness

empathic understanding of my parent’s lack of interest and a somewhat

she put into the materiality of her surroundings makes me miss her a lot.

muted perception of fashion. During the development of this essay I

I know that they matter to her, being representative of who she is.

find myself laughing, enjoying these talks with my parents. They launch

My father admits that he has gained a certain affinity for clothing

more questions, leaving the topic of clothes, about their personalities,

while getting older. He says he learned to like it. Traveling. Like his mother.

idiosyncrasies and surroundings. Nonetheless, their voices matter, it fills

Meeting other cultures and exploring his own identity. Like I have done

22 E V E R L A V É N

A Synthesis of Experience in Fashion 23

and still do. As much as I have acknowledged that my upbringing was never as a sprouting source of inspiration for my choice of approaching fashion design, it was by all means triggered by the lack of nurturing and gave me reasons to continue. This piece of text has been a natural course to understand what I represent in what I am researching, the question of meaning lingering in me. All of a sudden, a topic so dear to me that kept me and my parents at distance, now connected us. History filled in these pages and made me who I am. I can now look at myself in the mirror with gratitude, the coat I wear is woven with threads of their stories and memories.

1 Luleå Kommun, Historia, website, 5 May 2020, <https://www.lulea.se/kommun--politik/fakta-och-statistik/fakta-omlulea-kommun/historia.html> [accessed 14 March 2021] 2 Handelns historia, Att klä sig rätt, website, <http://www.handelnshistoria.se/kulturen/livsstil/att-kla-sig-ratt/> [accessed 28 March 2021] 3 Sveriges Riksdag, The history of the Riksdag, website, 24 February 2021, <https://www.riksdagen.se/en/how-theriksdag-works/democracy/the-history-of-the-riksdag/> [accessed 30 March 2021] 4 Nordiska Museet, Folkhemmet. Sverige under 1930 - 1960-talet, website, <https://www.nordiskamuseet.se/ kunskapsomraden/folkhemmet> [accessed 30 March 2021] 5 Ibid,.

6 The Weejun, Classic Americana, The Return of Hutton Famous Desert Boots, website article, 11 November 2015. <https://theweejun.com/the-return-of-hutton-famous-desert-boots/> accessed 30 March 2021] 7 Nordiska Museet, Folkhemmet. Sverige under 1930 - 1960-talet, website, <https://www.nordiskamuseet.se/ kunskapsomraden/folkhemmet> [accessed 30 March 2021] 8 Handelns historia, 1900-talet - Handelsexpansionens tid, website <http://www.handelnshistoria.se/historien/ handelns-epoker-och-artal/1900-talet-handelsexpansionens-tid/> [accessed 30 March 2021] 9 Kjell Östberg, ’Sweden and the long 1968´: Verso books, 2018 <https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/3843sweden-and-the-long-1968> [accessed 8th January 2021] 10 Michael Hagström, KF, ’En text om blåvitt´, 2016 <https://kf.se/en-text-om-blavitt/> [accessed 8th January 2021] 11 Svensk Form, ’Äta - sova - sitta på KF:s basmöbler´, 2020 <https://svenskform.se/175aravsvenskform/ata-sova-sittapa-kfs-basmobler/> [accessed 8th January 2021] 12 Brittanica, Thomas Thorild, website <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Thorild> [accessed 8th January 2021]

A Synthesis of Experience in Fashion 25

24 E V E R L A V É N ME IN 1987

Fig 4

TWO

What I learned listening to architects

magnificent. The impression has lasted forever.

In times when fashion did not spark excitement within me, the podcast Architecture Talk by Vikramaditya Prakas was a comfort blanket to me. Prakash and his visiting guest within his field of practice, with precarious and poetic thoughtfulness vocalized the meaning of constructing beautiful buildings. It sparked an inclination in how I could apply this lyrical characterization of awareness about architecture to my own discipline of fashion. In Prakash podcast, the name of architect Louis Kahn was a favoured topic. Not only was Kahn the creator of remarkable buildings but he generously contributed with passion and convincing conviction his ideas of significance to the field of

Growing up I was for many years a member of a local church

architecture. My curiosity for his work made me read the

choir. My enthusiasm for the weekly practice was not about curiosity

transcript of his lecture Silence and Light, in Zürich 1969.

of the religious aspect of going to church, it was because of the beauty,

A lecture addressing responsibility and of inspiration for

the atmosphere and the feeling the building offered. Mesmerised by the

the architect students by poetically articulating his lifelong

lights of candelabras, that lit up the intricate ornaments in gold and

search for the essence of architecture and putting words to

wooden work, there was something untouchable there. The nuance and

creativity as an vital outlet for humans.

“It says the language of man is art. It stems for something which grows out of the needing, of desire to be, to express...”

Louis I. Kahn, Silence and Light, ed. by Alessandro Vassella (Zürich: Parks books, 1969),p.

26.

shades of light and darkness, the sun coming through the colour stained

However, what was riveting was the many episodes

glass windows. Big pillars throwing shadows on the corners adorned with

of discussions around Kahn and his work and how

tapestry of silk threads in hundreds of colours, depicting the horror of the

genuinely grateful the guests were talking about his heritage.1 A legacy

crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the mourning apostles in a very vivid but

that stood for the authority of an architect to give spaces symbolism,

incredibly beautiful scene. There was this feeling of an eternity there that

to evoke emotional response for the humans who saw and visited it. A

made me feel at peace, a sacred place full of decorations addressing and

heritage that the architects in the podcast honored. In Silence and Light,

honouring the skills and beliefs of beautiful art created by artisans. From

Kahn opposes that architecture has no presence without the work of the

behind the altar in the retroquire I watched the people who honoured

architect.2 To him, creating buildings is about resisting the temptation

and respected this place with all their beliefs. The visitors, dressed up

of designing for the market and about considering the timelessness of

for every occasion, for funerals and weddings, for Sunday service and

what we create. An ideology that should be adopted by us designers, to

leaving flowers behind. The memories I have of the atmospheric interiors

invest in structures that promote longevity by maintenance, repair and

of the church made me understand architecture as something sacred and

symbolism. The relationship between time and space has proved to be a

26 E V E R L A V É N

A Synthesis of Experience in Fashion 27

crucial denominator for architecture and fashion. How architecture can

Influenced

by

Maurice

Merleau-Ponty’s

concept

of

represent material, politics and heritage in a time and age, fashion in the

phenomenology, architect Juhani Pallasmaa devoted an entire philosophy

same way communicates our interrelation with time and space. In use

by defining architecture as a crucial subject of meaning through a

of material, the method of construction, trends of silhouettes and color

complex sensory experience.6 Merlau-Ponty argued that the body is an

palettes but most importantly people own emotional memories and

object mutually interacting among other objects, critiquing the human

nostalgia connected to the visuality, tactility and scent of the garment.

dominance of vision of culture. One that originated in Cartesian ideology.7

3

In capitalistic systems where fashion is constructed as spiritless

Supported by phenomenology, Pallasmaa’s own work The eyes of the

commodities depending on tendencies it is only awaiting to be replaced

Skin, is concerned by the visual emphasis as it compromises the sensual

by the new, therefore the designer needs to be revered by the task

elements and by consequence, diminishes our perception

and accountable for what we leave behind. A well designed garment 4

requires the intention of a long life commitment to a buyer as buildings are built to last, and we as designers are responsible to communicate these matters. Today, in current systems, we run the risk of creating a warped image of our traditions and heritage, as we curate and edit the timeline for future generations. Clothes as buildings that were telling for our time, the ones that became subject of demolition and refuse will

”The hegemonic eye seeks domination over all fields of cultural production, and it seems to weaken our capacity for empathy, compassion and participation with the world.”

Juhani Pallasmaa, The eyes of the skin: architecture and the senses. (Chichester: Wiley, 2012), p. 24.

of art and architecture. Drawing attention to the idea that mutual responses of our senses are not an assemblage of experiences isolated from one another. They occur at once with its spiritual and material presence.8 These concerns are notable and relatable for the fashion as a medium. In the current age of information, clothes are dependent on conveying a clear message that

not be representative of our history. In an episode of Architecture Talk,

is quickly read on the digital screen in a social media feed,

I listen to the conversation between host Vikramaya Prakash and fellow

that doesn’t acquire much knowledge from the consumer.

architecture professor Michael Benedikt, discussing the responsibility

If our consumers’ attention to fashion complexity has declined, what

of the maker. Benedikt assigns responsibility of time and space to the

happens to the effort of producing and consuming it? In accordance with

maker by saying that we need to consider the second hand value of

Juhani Pallasmaa and Louis Kahn’s contributions, highlighted by Vikram

things we make and we need to define and distinguish fashion from

Prakash and his peers of architecture, the maker is a proud authority

clothes and differentiate the function and meaning it. For fashion, that

of the experience your craft has to offer. Fashion should be a site where

means that we need to show consumers what distinguishes fast fashion

culture and perception is exercised, where the storytelling and the process

from luxury fashion, skills of making and curatorial practices. Prakrash

is a crucial aspect of the product. A seducing symbolism that makes the

and Benedikt underline the importance of how we chose to speak about

consumer aware about it’s longevity. The designer’s ambition should be

the artistic process. Real estate is not architecture, it is the marketplace

about constructing a world that excites and responds to our imagination

for architecture and we need to teach our consumers to make a difference

and not about wedging into a capitalistic system of supply and demand.

between categories of making.

A responsibility that we make way for future designers, a heritage and

5

28 E V E R L A V É N

A Synthesis of Experience in Fashion 29

Your taxi has gone

meaning of design, by generously supplying them with theories and

You left me a note , I’m reading it now

our knowledge. In his essay Atmospheres, architect Peter Zumthor

It has an I, it has a heart, it has a U We say goodbye, but you

affectionately describes architecture as a spatial art. A phenomena

always come back, that I know

with ability to touch people through a spontaneous emotional response

I’ ll remember to clean, I’ ll take care of the laundry,

by the material presence. When people interact with spaces and the 9

it is on me I’ ll remember your

moment a perception of the surrounding arises.I contemplate that

Collina Strada mesh top,

designers should allow ourselves to think of fashion as respectfully as

Your synthetic silky nightie,

in 30 degrees and no quick wash

and your low-ankled pink socks

we think of a building. With armature, pillars, claddings and layers of

Your Eckhaus Latta long Sleeve, in that weird viscosy quality

insulation, thoughtfully put together, on a firm structure, made to stand

Your running gear, your yoga mat, that I don’t know how to clean

with longevity and through time. To rise in majestic beauty. Inhabited by

But i’ ll remember that too It’s been three weeks, I

people, proud of their residency, to offer them a home, of safety and of

still haven’t cleaned, The smell of your sweat,

memories that they will nurture.

the taste of your lips It stings

I reflect on the podcast talks of architecture and writings to

I got no appetite and I can’t seem to sleep

conclude that fashion designers not only need to engage with the

Did you really leave me I mean, I know you did, physically,

materialistic value, but it is also imperative that we develop a language

but did you also go, spiritually Then why am I doing

that revitalizes fashion, a poetic vision of fashion that belongs with

your laundry? (...)

philosophical narrative.

Fashion designers need to infuse symbolic meaning to clothes and to evoke empathy and emotional response. If fashion exhibits a demand of curiosity for knowledge of art and history, humans should grow an apprehension of what we consume and why and recognize “discovering” a vital aspect of human life.

The different branches of fashion need to be recognized and understood through their own being and by its own philosophical framework and category. Hence we designers are responsible to contribute to this understanding, what materials and stands for the expression and representation that separates them. In short, we need to confront what is the 30 E V E R L A V É N

Extract of the ‘Laundry’

Fig 5

In the song ‘Laundry’

by Tella Viv, the references of clothes catches my attention in how we relate to clothes and our loved ones.In a brief talk with the lyrics composer Carl Hjelm Sandqvist I reflect on the experience and perception embedded in clothes. The lyrics demonstrate how fashion entails meaning beyond what we see. In a song, ignited by sound.

Muisc by Tella Viv Lyrics by Carl Hjelm Sandqvist

CARL’S HANDWRITTEN NOTES OF ‘LAUNDRY’

cost versus the value and what qualifies as fashion. In a world where humans tend to reflect about now and not about eternity, fashion should be constructing an contemporary observation, translation and interpretation of the culture, connecting the past, present and the future.

With the globalization of the internet, we created a shortcut to learn about other countries, cultures, history, politics and life stories. These thoughts place fashion as an epistemological concept, a system of knowledge, a site of learning and exercising expression and perception and understanding of cultures other than yours. But it also manifests A Synthesis of Experience in Fashion 31

our inconsistencies in experiences. I believe this gap of knowledge and

meaning of life within the structures of a building, dedicated to his

experience is the root of the problematic notion of cultural appropriation..

religion of Christianity. I share his interest in believing in something

A phenomena where one can borrow and reject whatever one likes

bigger than ourselves. But to me, it has always been this idea of being

from images without giving back. As with architecture, fashion could

a creator. To animate the within and to offer symbolic meaning of life.

be grounds to share and create a dialog for traditions, culture and meaning to be traced and continued, to contextualize yourself in time.

With insights from architects, I now look at fashion as the making of a presence with a designers associations and experiences of our world.

Fashion provides an understanding of the human condition, a traction between ontology and epistemology, as a system of being and knowing.

A conversation between the body, one another, in space of time and the form.As designers we have the agency to construct meaning we want fashion to be about. Not only just being clothes of visual seduction, it relates mediates and project meanings beyond the fabrication of it. The clothes are a membrane on top of your skin and an extension of our body. The fully embodied experience of fashion demands an envision of all our senses and an recognition for its materiality. Fashion can no longer be understood as solely a product and a visual expression of the artist, the desire of the eye is reducing the substance of meaning and we as designers are responsible to present and educate the people who invest in us. Fashion begins with the idea from a designer but ends in your senses.

My grandfather Ingvar was in the midst of his life reeducated from being a teacher to becoming a priest.

This was the story of how I ended up as a member of the church choir. As I with this text is looking for support in meaning for fashion, my grandfather also looked for

“(..)Instead of portraying a musician on the road leaving somebody behind, I swapped perspective to being left, vulnerable and sad, only having your partner’s clothes as a souvenir. The hook line refers to semiknown fashion brands, mixed with training gear, and how to wash them.

When you highlight fashion in popular music I feel it reflects a certain elitism, inviting listener’s to get familiar with an exclusive lingo. Today’s rap-infused pop repeats Gucci and Dior as a mantra, so I wanted to take it up one notch and mention more novel brands such as Collina Strada and Eckhaus Latta. The polarity of mixing over-sensitive phrases about heartbreak with hook-lines about expensive garments was a tool to ironise the superficial values in today’s pop.”

1 Vikramaya Prakash, 55. Louis Kahn and the Conceptual Practice of Anthony Pellecchia, Architecturetalk, podcast, 6 Nov 2019 < https://www.architecturetalk.org/home/55 > [accessed 16 October 2020].

2 Louis I. Kahn, Silence and Light, ed. by Alessandro Vassella (Zürich: Parks books, 1969) ,p. 26.

3 Vikramaya Prakash, 93. Demolition of Kahn’s IIM Dormitories with Prem Chandavarkar, Architecturetalk, podcast, Spotify, 8 January 2021, <https://www.architecturetalk.org/home/93premchandavarkar> [accessed 1 February 2021] 4 Vikramaya Prakash, 94. Demolition of Kahn’s IIM Dormitories with Sarosh Anklesaria, Shubhra Raje, and Riyaz Tayyibji Architecturetalk podcast, Spotify, 20 January 2021 <https://www.architecturetalk.org/home/94artp> [accessed 1 February 2021] 5 Vikramaya Prakash, 91. Posthuman Humanism, Spirituality, and the Impressions of Childhood with Michael Benedikt, Architecturetalk, podcast, Spotify, 10 December 2020, <https://architecturetalk.libsyn.com/91-posthuman-humanismspirituality-and-the-impressions-of-childhood-with-michael-benedikt> [accessed 12 February 2021]t 6 Juhani Pallasmaa, The eyes of the skin: architecture and the senses. (Chichester: Wiley, 2019), p.23 7 Ibid. p, 23.

8 Ibid.

9 Peter Zumthor, Atmospheres: Architectural environments, Surrounding objects. (Basel: Birkhäuser, 2006), p.16.

Sandqvist, about the inspiration and thought process behind the song ‘Laundry’ , 2021.

32 E V E R L A V É N

A Synthesis of Experience in Fashion 33

THREE

Methodology for immaterial and material matters

I have in earlier writings and through a phenomenological perspective engaged in understanding how humans inherently do not have a deeper commitment to material without practicing their knowledge and perception of it’s powerful significance. In this text, I am suggesting that material empathy can make us reach new understandings of fashion research and realities. In the contemporary age of information, a new materialism in fashion is produced and animated through the digital screen.4 The workmanship, the tactility and the somatic experience are lost but again also accentuate material as a notable matter to a fashion exiperience. With new materialism, we need to identify that emotion towards material is a valuable mechanism in the meaning of life. These

Fashion is an interdisciplinary phenomenon that has been a

new materialisms require new ways of understanding fashion. Our

research subject dominated by established academic domains within art,

understanding of material generated in coding and technology changes

humanities and social science. In the Western systems of thinking and

how we perceive its force and its complexity. The digital revolution is

through the linguistic turn, language has been central to understanding

constantly challenging us about our references to what material is. A

the meaning of fashion to explain its external reality.

Since academic

substance that is neither natural nor artificial, but dependent on its

research is intended to articulate the truth about reality, it is reasonable

context, conditions and relationships. Material can be organic but silent,

to ask what is real in a materialistic and metaphysical world of fashion.

fluid not flexible, mutable but rigid, sometimes immaterial. Researchers

Humans have a seemingly sceptical attitude of the materialist values,

should explore materiality as its own matter with its own meaning, and

hence the matter of fashion and its link to material is stigmatised and

not a passive part of fashion, but rather with its own agency. Influenced

its significance is debated. Consequently, it can be interpreted that the

by Laurene Vaughan’s book Practice based design research, this text

research in the field of fashion studies has mainly been concerned with

is also addressing the sine qua non practitioners in the discipline of

identity, morality, social politics and consumer culture. Modern times

fashion need to engage in articulating our own relevant methodology

have brought focus on eliminating the material rather than bringing it

for research in the field. 5 Traditionally the focus on meaning has been

forward. In the environmental crisis of the last decades, we found fashion

assigned to subjects with a universal truth and with scientific measures.

and material at the height of the problem which made it presumingly

Although, in nature science research, it is also crucial to provoke new

difficult for us to understand the meaning of it. It could be argued that

understandings and evolutions by investigative and intuitive experiments.

the neglect for examining and understanding the materiality of fashion

How do we define and evaluate fashion? Can science recognize matters

instead expresses its significance.

that are immaterial and unmeasurable? Design is about characterizing

1

2

3

34 E V E R L A V É N

A Synthesis of Experience in Fashion 35

a process, the quality and the result of making matter. The outcome

interferes with this relationship and is not an outside spectator of the

depends on the experience of the designer. For the artist and the maker,

phenomenon.9 Human and non human sources have the opportunity

the product is not only about the result of making,

to act and negotiate limitations in the production of the matter, which

but the very iterative process of doing it. By scientific

per se follows with a responsibility of challenging and reframing the

measures, the nonlinear exercise of creativity and

conduct and performance. All decision making is based upon structures

the subjectivity of methodology can be considered

and systems and ethics refers to our knowledge-making and what has

as an uncurbed exercise. Without the conditions of

been allowed to be a representative outcome. What has been left out

systemic analysis, there is a lack of control over the

unintentionally and what has been communicated.10 Agential realism

process, hence it lacks a deeper understanding as a

can help us locate a path for the industry, education systems, students,

meaningful operation. In his concept of aesthetic

emerging designers and users to reflect on how fashion is studied and

experience, philosopher John Dewey proclaimed that

accepted. A methodology and concept to bounce back to for improving

creativity includes a daily reflection of the process.

performance within an artistic and moralized field.

“All (...) creative activities show a pattern of controlled inquiry: framing situations, searching, experimenting and experiencing where both the development of hypothesis and judgement of experienced aesthetic qualities are important components in the process.

The main difference between scientific research and art work being that the former aims at the production of theories where the latter concerns inquiries into materials in producing works of art.”

6

Because of the seemingly unmethodical

The boundaries given to the educational system should

practice, designers should choose to reflect on

be problematized and understood as institutionalized

the process of the practice and the knowledge we

knowledge that needs to be reworked and challenged

produce. To give a lustrous discourse of scientific meaning to material

on a daily basis. The design studio as reference is an

and fashion design. Theoretical physicist Karen Barad is questioning the

ambivalent place for the birth of design. With regards

frameworks of research that are manifested through representationalism,

to the structural and influential forces of the fashion

where language hegemony and philosophical tradition give agency

industry from sizing and methods of labour. The

and meaning to material by the encounter with humans. Agency,

sample size mannequins in the design studio, pattern

intra-action and matter are core concepts of Barad’s theory of agential

making from block patterns, units of measuring. The

Ed. by Laurene Vaughan, Practicebased Design Research, (London: Bloomsbury, 2019),p. 78.

“We don’t obtain knowledge by standing outside the world; we know because we are of the world. We are part of the world in its differential becoming.

The separation of epistemology from ontology is a reverberation of a metaphysics that assumes an inherent difference between human and nonhuman, subject and object, mind and body, matter and discourse.”

Karen Barad, Meeting the Universe Halfway:

Quantum

Physics

terminology of traditional sewing, darts and stitches

explains that conditions are established for how objects should be read

puts limits and offers easy solutions for the maker. It

and interpreted as metaphysical questions of the self in the world, as

automatically refers to a certain process of putting together, ”how things

clothes are an existential experience, and not isolated from the world of

in order should be made”, refraining from originality but also projects

being. Agency is not something one has or is assigned, it emerges within

the possibility of agency and reinvention in design. We, the makers of

the relationship of human and non human sources in intra-actions.

8

fashion, must engage in educating our consumers beyond the limitation

This inter-activity relates to the indivisible between the phenomenon

of commercial value, conventional use and societal and cultural

and its measuring agencies. The researcher becomes someone who

significance by remembering that fashion will always be evaluated and

36 E V E R L A V É N

and

the Entanglement of Matter and

realism; a proposition of knowing and being in the world. Barad 7

Meaning (Durham: Duke University Press, 2007), p. 185.

A Synthesis of Experience in Fashion 37

criticized through the contemporary taste. Designers need to question

described the iterative process, the actions and the intended result

established frameworks in the phenomenon called fashion, where

of my practice as fluid of agency. When investigating the politics of

there are opportunities for us to reconceptualize conditions for design

sizing in the fashion industry, I found that the stigma around sizing

practice and by this giving promise to fashion as a meaningful work

was around the discourse of ‘unhealthy bodies’. Implicated in power

of art. We need to understand that the meaning continuously expands

structures of exclusivity, representation, identity, capitalism and

independently, without us as makers and not only as a product of culture.

culture that raised many questions and opportunities for a systemic

The possibility of a flux of past and present, the relationship between the

disruption. To make meaning matter. My research informed me that

maker and wearer and what happens in between the designers work,

there is a need for discourse and new narratives regarding systems

the cloth becoming something out of nothing. This tension between

of sizing; a conversation and activity that we as designers need to

ontology and epistemology resonated with my approach and inspired a

confront when creating. Western society and the fashion industry have

methodology for my research practice during my master’s degree.

long promoted a stereotypical image of men and women that doesn’t

In the beginning of 2021, I attended an exercise of conceptual

resonate with the vast majority of the consumers. The inconsistency of

‘accident training’ with Ania Martchenko for my master studies at the

sizing reflects our educational and value systems and we as designers

Royal college of art. I wanted to investigate the creative source within

need to propose new ways of clothing construction, size measuring and

me but outside of my consciousness. The conditions for the session were

versatile size representations. In the Baradian notion of agential realism,

simple. For four hours I draped a cotton toile to the body of a model.

I found encouragement and I acknowledged myself as an intuitive and

My model was told to take new positions whenever they felt like it. I

investigative decision maker responsible to challenge the inconsistencies

had no control over the subject and no conventional straight-standing

of the sizing system. An honorable intra-action and agencies that emerge

position to follow. The conditions of the articulation and movement of

between me, my creations and the consumers demand for new sizing

the model’s body dictated my work, techniques of draping were adapted

options, a possibility to adjust and let the garment guide the wearer. To

for the unexpected. A dress was the outcome, a negative space with all

me, agential realism becomes a methodology of practice based design

my assumptions and ideologies of the world. I wanted to prove that

research, a reason and an ethos for my ambitions. Understanding

materiality is not a passive factor in design work but also it has agency

that there is no distinction between me and my designs, between the

in the process. An intra-action of agencies that formulated new matters.

human and non-human elements. It can make us consider what other

Reflecting on my experiences of the Four hour dress, I began

matters that accomplish fashion, a reverence for its sound, light, texture,

exploring the concept of a flexible size range within the same garment.

traditions and politics. Fashion is not a designer’s self-invested discursive

Submissive to the shapes and complexity of the human body but with

practice of communication or a visual material being for a wearer but

a fit relying on the structure of the garment, I gave the research the

the phenomena and matter lies within the dynamic process within this

name Sizing plasticity, where plasticity, the phenomenon of mutability,

relationship between all these factors.

38 E V E R L A V É N

A Synthesis of Experience in Fashion 39

Fashion can challenge our relationship with the world, explore our understanding of knowing and being a part of it. A material matter with the intricacy and tension that exemplifies a human necessity of search for the meaning of being. Language hegemony over material is problematic as it does not reveal the full dimensions of significance.

Karen Barad’s concept of Agential realism informs me how I practically and theoretically can meet the meaning and knowledge of fashion, between epistemology and ontology. Fashion design needs to be studied beyond textual and literal meaning to reflect reality and with a sound correspondence with material in a post humanistic view. Fashion designers need to contribute with knowledge and be involved in paving new ways of practice design research and be held accountable for the impact of their practical processes and systemic differences their work can pose. As a designer I need to acknowledge the power structures my concept is born into and how I can continue to challenge and contribute with my practice to the field of fashion. Fashion is the art of dressing, the maker’s tactility and decision making, a religious and political division, concerned with metaphysical and existential questions of being. Clothes absorb you and your surroundings to emphasize the presence of your being, at the same time it will allow you to conceal and fade away in togetherness.

1 Ed. by Agnès Rocamora and Anneke Smelik, Thinking through fashion, A guide to Key Theorists (London: L.B Tauris & Co, 2016), p. 8.

2 Ibid., p 41.

3 Libbi Lee and Karl-Hendrik Magnus, A More Circular Fashion Industry. Will Require a Collective Effort, Business of

Fig 6

Fashion, website, 2 January 2021 <https://www.businessoffashion.com/opinions/sustainability/a-more-circular-fashionindustry-will-require-a-collective-effort [accessed 3 April 2021]>

40 E V E R L A V É N

THE PROCESS OF FOUR HOUR DRESS

A Synthesis of Experience in Fashion 41

4 Joshua James Small, How fashion’s post-pandemic future could be digital, I-D Vice, website, 2 April 2020 <https://i-

BIBLIOGRAPHY

d.vice.com/en_uk/article/g5x9ay/how-fashions-post-pandemic-future-could-be-digital> [accessed 5 April 2021] 5 Ed. by Laurene Vaughan, Practice-based Design Research, (London: Bloomsbury, 2019), p. 24.

The hand-me-down coat

6 Ibid., p. 78.

Bochner, Arthur and Ellis, Carolyn, Evocative Autoethnography:Writing Lives and Telling Stories (London: Routledge, 2016)

7 Barad, 2007, p. 128.

8 Ibid., 9 Ibid., 10 Barad, 2007, p. 381.

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IMAGES Fig. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Front page, fabric samples photographed by me for Systems, 2021 My father Peter in Mallorca, photo by Viveca Brännström, 1973 Me, photo by Peter Brännström, 1987 My mother Viveca in Södertälje, photo by Peter Brännström, 1972 Handwritten text scanned for ‘Laundry’ by Carl Hjelm Sandqvist, 2021 The four hour dress screen shots from film, January 2021 End page, photo by me from The four hour dress exercise, January 2021

44 E V E R L A V É N

45 BENJAMIN IN THE FOUR HOUR DRESS

Fig 7