downs

Hand me downs can be timeless pieces of clothing that hold emotional sentiment within them, they can hold memories and unlock past lives we may have not experienced ourselves. Through conversations l’ve had with my mother about her style and the clothes she wore when she was my age - I began to explore and question the relationship we have with our mother’s belongings. In the hopes of delving into a per- sonal investigation through imagry and styling, I asked myself how I inrepret the past and if I can see a part myself within my mother. I was curious to see if I could use hand me down clothing in an attempt to get closer to my mothers style as a teenager a whilst still in the process of defining my own.

After discovering images of my mum at 18, I became increasingly interested in the person she was, how she dressed and how she expressed herself as a teenage girl living on a turkey farm in Drogheda, a port town in County Louth on the east coast of Dublin.

I began wanting to reimagine and re interpret this version of my mother that I never met. Comparing teenage life in the 80’s to teenage life now and how dramatically it has changed in many ways. Discovering these capsule collections of clothing that hold stories, memories, and sentiment. There is something special about wearing the exact same dress that my mum wore herself in the 80’s, I automatically feel more connected to her and the experienced she had whilst wearing it.

Taking you back to a time through the thoughts and feelings it evokes. After speaking to friends, I realised that there really is nothing between than opening your mum’s wardrobe and finding a perfectly intact vintage piece ready to be given a new lease of life. A piece of clothing that even over 40 years later, is still perfectly preserved. I realised that hand me down clothing is ethical, heart-warming, and sustainable. Preloved clothing holds memories through each hole or stain that new mass manufactured garments cannot. Pop culture and style inspiration was different then to how it is now, nowadays many of us find our fashion inspiration through social media and targeted ads. When my mum was a teenager, she didn’t have a mobile phone or even access to fashion magazines. She found her inspiration through the music she listened to and the women she looked up to.

‘I shopped at vintage stores in Dublin and markets. My style inspiration was Siouxsie Sioux and Liz Frazer and any girls I saw walking around town and Dublin who had a vintage look’.

Throughout this publication I’ve decided to take the spirit from the old images and frame it in a contemporary way. Styling some of my mothers old pieces of clothing from that time and elevating them, creating a modern version of this past style, using my mum as my main source of inspiration as well as references from the 80s goth movement and DIY culture.

Here Minna is wearing 3 items of clothing handed down to me by my mother. A 1960’s mesh crochet dress, vintage patterned tights and a studded belt. All of which were worn by my mum in her teenage years.