Clothing Cultures - Current Issue

If asked to select an image that personifies the act of knitting, many of us would think of a grandma-esque figure – a maternal, homey, comforting figure who is knitting a sweater for a loved one – rather than David Bowie wearing knit jumpsuit garments onstage. Indeed, knitted structures and knitted motifs, such as snowflakes and reindeer, are commonly associated with nostalgia and matricultural spheres. Often, knitted garments conjure feelings of memory and melancholy, as most of us are familiar with knitted items and may have received hand knitted objects made by a loved one.

Sew Me a Quilt. Tell  You a Story. was a performative conversation between Sequoia Barnes and Carol Tulloch that took place at the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (25 April 2019). It was in response to the exhibition Senga Nengudi (16 March–26 May 2019), notably her work Ceremony for Freeway Frets (1979) and the RSVP series. These feature costume and textiles associated with Black bodies which Barnes argues lean on the concept of fashioning – establishing design, making and aesthetic codes engineered by and superimposed onto marginalized people – a theme that Barnes explores in her research practice. For Tulloch these works reflect styling – the construction of self through the assemblage of garments, accessories, hairstyles and beauty regimes that may, or may not, be ‘in fashion’ at the time of use. To style one’s body is part of everyday life, which is agency and a form of self-telling. ‘Fashioning’ and ‘styling’ are different, yet equally valid, approaches to thinking about making the self. In this article we will discuss how exploration of the concepts Black fashioning and Black styling informed the performance Sew Me a Quilt. Tell You a Story. through two women hand-stitching a quilt, a joint act that is a longstanding signifier of Black women’s making traditions, storytelling and communal experience. As two Black women who are culturally and generationally different – Barnes is African American and Tulloch is Black British – our shared diasporic connections to quilt-making engendered our pursuit of authorship and agency through making in the otherwise privileged space of the ‘white cube gallery’. Additionally, the article will discuss how this performative conversation blurred the lines between making and performance, materiality and lived experiences as well as how our performative exchange of knowledge – academic, cultural and political – created something that went beyond the usual experience of visiting a gallery to ‘look at art’ to seeing and listening. The original idea for the performance, instigated by Barnes, was for her and Tulloch to talk while hand-stitching an unfinished quilt, which Tulloch began in 2010, in front of an audience they were not to engage with. The intention was to hold space for the audience to enable listening. In practice, the performative conversation also held space for: different kinds of conversations and listening; emotional experiences and healing; and consideration of how Tulloch and Barnes fashion/style their own identities through memories as they stitched towards completing a quilt as a form of remembrance.

Clothing is increasingly used in communicating cultural knowledge because it offers significant potential. It communicates the context of cultural knowledge within which the cultural groups in several countries, including Nigeria, manage and perceive appearances. In this article, clothing has been used to establish significant connections with the values, customs and symbols, constructions of reality as well as world-views of four cultural groups in Nigeria. These cultural groups had interpreted their perceptions and the reality of their clothing through modesty, immodesty, adorning and protective functions. The article concluded that there were significant connections between culture and the clothing of the Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo. It suggested that communicating such cultural knowledge could lead to less misunderstanding and mutual respect among cultural groups.

Swimwear has gained significant popularity as a fashion item that serves a spectrum of needs, from pure functionality to vanity. However, the production and disposal of swimwear can harm the environment. This article explores the relationship between unfulfilled needs, consumer behaviour and the role of the need-based design approach in swimwear consumption and sustainability. It identifies the various types of clothing obsolescence that also apply to swimwear and highlights the importance of designing for swimwear longevity, both in terms of physical and emotional durability. A survey was conducted among 135 female participants from Egypt to better understand local consumers’ swimwear purchasing habits and requirements. The survey results revealed various factors that affect swimwear replacement, including unfulfilled needs, quality degradation, seeking improved functionality and change in fit. The article concludes by emphasizing strategies designers can rely on to enhance swimwear longevity, such as achieving customization, visual appeal, comfort, positive emotional attachment, improved functionality, high quality, added value components and classic designs. All this is to accomplish more responsible swimwear consumption and production.

The Magnificent Century series, which was aired in more than 70 countries after its screening in Turkey, narrates the events of the most powerful period of the Ottoman empire (sixteenth century). The series, which was popular from the first episode, has received various criticism from many angles. In particular, the historical reliability of the series has been questioned the most on a local scale. The article aims to interpret the movement called Hürrem Sultan fashion that emerged through the hybridization of time and space in the female characters’ costume, hair and make-up design as a significant component of global audience attraction in the wider context of the historiographical performance of fictional narratives.