Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Fashionable detachments : Wardrobes, bodies and the desire to let go

Petersson McIntyre, Magdalena LU and Mellander, Elias (2022)
Abstract
Consumers are increasingly asked to “empty out their closets,” to “de-clutter” or in other ways detach themselves from the textile surplus of their wardrobes. In this article, fashion is examined as a process of detachment. Building on ethnographic wardrobe interviews, wardrobe clearances and group discussions with consumers, detachment is viewed as a fundamental, yet underexamined, process of fashion practices. Drawing on the queer phenomenology of Sarah Ahmed, we observe how the informants express a desire to detach themselves from the fast fashion system and become more sustainable, less dependent on consumption and more oriented toward emotional investment. Being oriented towards specific pieces of clothing allowed for attachment to... (More)
Consumers are increasingly asked to “empty out their closets,” to “de-clutter” or in other ways detach themselves from the textile surplus of their wardrobes. In this article, fashion is examined as a process of detachment. Building on ethnographic wardrobe interviews, wardrobe clearances and group discussions with consumers, detachment is viewed as a fundamental, yet underexamined, process of fashion practices. Drawing on the queer phenomenology of Sarah Ahmed, we observe how the informants express a desire to detach themselves from the fast fashion system and become more sustainable, less dependent on consumption and more oriented toward emotional investment. Being oriented towards specific pieces of clothing allowed for attachment to that which is already here thus opening up for a relationship with clothing based on joy and care, rather than the unsustainable focus on the newly produced. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
host publication
Market Detachment : Breaking Social Ties in Economic Settings - Breaking Social Ties in Economic Settings
editor
Brembeck, Helene ; Cochoy, Franck and Hawkins, Gay
pages
14 pages
publisher
Routledge
ISBN
9781032217871
9781032217864
9781003270003
DOI
10.4324/9781003270003-4
language
English
LU publication?
no
additional info
This chapter was orginally published open access in the journal Consumption Markets & Culture, 24 (4), 343-356. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10253866.2020.1802258
id
a0d33fa6-0d19-43b9-ab17-09ac14b420ea
date added to LUP
2024-04-19 15:19:10
date last changed
2024-04-23 14:35:28
@inbook{a0d33fa6-0d19-43b9-ab17-09ac14b420ea,
  abstract     = {{Consumers are increasingly asked to “empty out their closets,” to “de-clutter” or in other ways detach themselves from the textile surplus of their wardrobes. In this article, fashion is examined as a process of detachment. Building on ethnographic wardrobe interviews, wardrobe clearances and group discussions with consumers, detachment is viewed as a fundamental, yet underexamined, process of fashion practices. Drawing on the queer phenomenology of Sarah Ahmed, we observe how the informants express a desire to detach themselves from the fast fashion system and become more sustainable, less dependent on consumption and more oriented toward emotional investment. Being oriented towards specific pieces of clothing allowed for attachment to that which is already here thus opening up for a relationship with clothing based on joy and care, rather than the unsustainable focus on the newly produced.}},
  author       = {{Petersson McIntyre, Magdalena and Mellander, Elias}},
  booktitle    = {{Market Detachment : Breaking Social Ties in Economic Settings}},
  editor       = {{Brembeck, Helene and Cochoy, Franck and Hawkins, Gay}},
  isbn         = {{9781032217871}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Routledge}},
  title        = {{Fashionable detachments : Wardrobes, bodies and the desire to let go}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003270003-4}},
  doi          = {{10.4324/9781003270003-4}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}