Clothing Cultures - Volume 8, Issue 1, 2021

The resurgence of home-sewing has led to renewed academic interest in the area. Current research has found that home-sewing is a substitute for purchasing ill-fitting, poor-quality and unsustainable fast fashion. Home-sewers report that they find the practice a creative leisure activity and that home-sewing is an empowering activity. What has been less examined are reasons why sewers make historical clothing, as opposed to making modern designs. This article examines home-sewing via the lens of historical material culture. That is, is seeks to understand the reasons why people sew and wear anachronistic clothing. It does so via an international survey of over 200 participants. A range of complex social and historical factors emerge in this research, which posit that there exist broad cultural phenomena to explain this contemporary trend. Of the recent research conducted into the reasons and motivations of home-sewers, the focus is on the sewing of contemporary clothing. Conversely, this research examines the motivations for sewing and wearing anachronistic clothing. Leading home dressmaking pattern company Simplicity claims that for many home-sewers it is vintage patterns that lead them to undertake home-sewing. This suggests that there are different types of home dressmakers who are motivated by considerations beyond that uncovered by previous research.

As a researcher I have always maintained a firm boundary between my professional work and my personal hobbies. One of my most recent academic projects has traced the development of techniques and styles of needlework pictures and pictorial samplers made by young women in eighteenth-century England, while in my spare time I have increasingly turned to crocheting clothing and toys for friends and family. However, following recent developments in material culture and archival studies, which have encouraged reframing conceptions of authorship and resituating objects within larger networks of connection, it seems foolish to suppose that my work on needlework in the long eighteenth century is unaffected by my investment in crochet (and vice versa). This article aims to initiate discussions around the relationship between personal lives and professional research and seeks to explore how my practice of crochet and my research of textiles from the long eighteenth century are intimately connected.

In Denmark, preparing the deceased for the funeral is almost entirely left to professionals. In most cases, next of kin say their final goodbyes at the site of the death. Only an estimated 20 per cent view the deceased after they have been prepared for the funeral. Death is widely considered a taboo, something difficult and even inappropriate to talk about. An estimated 80 per cent of Danes die in an institution either at a hospital, hospice or nursing home. The institutionalization of death, culture of individualism and absence of shared faith have diffused rituals regarding death in Denmark. There are hardly any formalized rituals for the relatives to engage with in the liminal space between the time of death and the funeral. The hypothesis of the article is that the choice of burial dress either as an individual, a family or institution holds further potential for making the transition from death to funeral more meaningful in contributing to the narratives of a person’s life. It requires a transference of symbolic meaning to a material object, mainly the final outfit. In this context, funeral attire becomes a material bridge between death and the beyond. Due to the intimate nature of the dress, the selection involves sharing the person’s life stories, values and preferences. As a ritual, the process may provide the bereaved with agency at a moment when they often feel paralysed. The chosen objects are transient, being part of the coffin ensemble, but hold lasting symbolic meaning as a visual biography for the loved ones to share. The article is based on case studies of the practices of selecting burial clothes with a hospice, two funeral homes, a nursing home and a priest in the period 2019–21, with a gap in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Fast fashion contributes to substantial environmental and ethical impacts at every stage of the product lifecycle and is a continuously growing industry within Australia. While slow fashion exists as an environmentally sustainable fashion alternative and appears to be gaining in popularity, little is known about the knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of the general Australian consumer towards slow fashion. This study aimed to develop an understanding of Australian consumers’ attitudes and perceptions towards the consumption of four types of slow fashion (secondhand shopping, high-end labels, hiring garments and eco-clothing). Participants (N = 209) completed a mixed-methods online survey. Quantitative items included a multiple-choice questionnaire on specific aspects of slow fashion knowledge, including clothing consumption, specific environmental impacts of the fashion industry and the origins and purpose of the slow fashion movement. Open-ended items were analysed for information about barriers, associated brand names and additional knowledge. Results from the multiple-choice questionnaire suggested participants possess satisfactory knowledge of fast and slow fashion; however, open-ended knowledge measures did not support this. Qualitative responses indicated potential barriers to purchasing slow fashion, including a lack of interest, cost, awareness, availability and sizing, as well as highlighted brand names that consumers associate with both slow and fast fashion. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first of its kind focusing on an Australian sample. These findings will have implications for behaviour-change efforts among educators and businesses, enabling them to implement targeted strategies to promote the consumption of slow fashion among general Australian consumers.