words connected to clothes

what is one feeling or thought about clothes that keeps coming up for you?

I’ve been collecting words for some time. Words connected to the clothes we wear. Words people have left in project spaces. Words that honour the self. Words that reveal, conceal, mute or enhance our being. Words that speak of personal experience and truth: unparalleled and incomparable to another. Words that trap, or set us free.

Words that matter.

Today, I offer this collection - gathered from this project Q&A - as a quiet space to notice, to reflect. A space to hold both our similarities and our differences. There is no right way to dress. There is no wrong.

If this resonates with you, I warmly invite you to join our community. Share your words, your experience, your reflections. Participate in the conversation, and help us explore together what it means to have a thoughtful relationship with our clothes. x

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The question: Is there one thought of feeling about clothes that keeps coming up for you?

The answers:

• I’d like to stop shopping but I can’t

• There’s got to be something more here

• Desire for new

• I love clothes, but the right clothes matter more than having more things.

• Potential

• Overwhelmed and lack of creativity and confidence

• They are outwardly so expressive and sensed so intimately by our bodies

• Find my style

• Calm

• Uncomfortable

• Feeling like an outfit is not quite good enough for the effort of wearing it, or like I’m not quite good enough to be worth wearing something

• -

• Comfort

• I have always loved textiles and clothing is part of this.

• Complicated… love fashion but thinking about clothes and outfits is exhausting

• It’s hard to find well made clothes in my price range.

• Frustrated

• Beautiful, interesting

• I wish I had the kind of body that could wear whatever I wanted

• Comfortable

• Annoyance

• Clothing is an expression of self in a body shape that doesn’t always play nice. It’s good to stay open to new ideas.

• I LOVE fashion but am trying to be a more conscious consumer

• Motherhood has really shifted my relationship with clothes greatly. Struggled more bow than ever to find my ‘new’ style and feel confident and comfortable.

• Feeling of empowerment.

• Style

• I always seek elegance

• Attachment to clothes I love and have enjoyed wearing, but don’t anymore

• It fits!

• Guilt

• Time to let go of old things

• Clothes mean so much to me

• Confusing

• I have too many…

• I’m concerned about ‘sweatshops’ and the welfare of the workforce.

• I need A New Look

• Love

• Size

• Be able to combine

• To not looks ‘not appropriate’

• Responsibility

• Functional minimalism

• That the vision I have with what I wear is not always what the end product looks like on me and that can be frustrating, and comfortable first when I’m comfortable I’m confident

• Am I overdressed?

• Anxiety

• I love my wardrobe, there’s just a couple missing caps but I’m in no rush to procure them. I love fashion!!

• Is this me? What should I wear? What are other people going to think about my outfit?

• Utility

• Be bold, be brave be beautiful

• I don’t feel good about my self that’s why my clothes also don’t look good

• I want to be more fun

• Emboldened

• Waste

• Uncertainty

• Passion

• They can change so much

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This post is a form of soft activism, and is part of a larger body of work that explores Our Relationship With Clothes. Australia is the largest consumer of textiles in the world; I ask questions in the hope of encouraging self-reflection and change.

To the people in Sydney, Melbourne, Seattle, Minnesota, Wausau, Oregon, Argentina, Scotland, Auckland, Paris, United Kingdom, Canada, Athens, Malaysia, Johannesburg, Sweden, New York, London, Brooklyn, Vietnam, Mumbai, France, Norway, Essex, Ireland, Madrid, Singapore, Germany and Antwerp - thank you for being part of this community.