Worn. Footwear, Attachment and the Affects of Wear
Outstanding book by dr. Ellen Samson, an artist and material culture researcher who uses practice-based research to explored the relationships between bodily experience, memory and clothing, both in museums and archives, and in everyday life. By using film, photography, performance work and writing she address the manner in which material objects can become records of lived experience and how the traces of these experiences can be read or understood by the viewer.
About Worn
In a culture preoccupied with newness and a fashion system largely predicated upon it, what is the significance of worn clothes and why do they have the power to affect us so deeply? Bringing together anthropological and psychoanalytic theory with practices of handmaking, wearing, and photography, this book asks what is the embodied experience of wearing and the power of the worn?
Through a focus upon a single garment, the shoe, this book calls on readers to reconsider the value of the marks of wear at a time when fast fashion reigns supreme and interest in used garments quietly increases.
Beautifully illustrated in full colour throughout, Worn highlights the beauty and value of imperfect garments and the power of the worn. Presenting the creases, crumples and stains, which litter our clothes, as evidence of lives lived and journeys taken, the book presents the wornness as an important yet often overlooked quality: one which has the potential to change our relationships to our clothes.
Book details
Published: 10-12-2020
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9781350087187
Imprint: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Illustrations: 105 color illustrations
Dimensions: 246 x 189 mm
Online price: £49.00
Buy the book at Bloomsburry
Book reviews
“Perhaps more than any other media, worn dress can offer insights into lives lived and shoes, which over time alter to echo the contours of our feet, can be particularly redolent with meaning. Ellen Sampson’s exploration is beautifully written, entirely accessible, poignant and profound. It will resonate with us all.” – Amy de la Haye, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, UK
“Ellen Sampson’s evocative and thoughtful book eloquently explores the transformative relationships between ourselves and what we wear. Using shoes as an entry point into this larger discussion, Sampson’s investigation of this entanglement is a joy to read.” – Elizabeth Semmelhack, The Bata Shoe Museum, Canada
“Sampson’s outstanding book explores the entanglements of object, subject, thing and theory with confident yet insightful deftness. This perceptive and timely exploration of the embodied, worn experiences around garments offers important methodological thinking that will help transform future fashion research.” – Hilary Davidson, dress and textiles historian and curator, Honorary Associate, University of Sydney, Australia
“Ellen Sampson’s book takes us on a powerful journey, helping us think through our physical and psychic entanglements with the worn, used clothing that forms the bulk of our own wardrobes. Using a practice-based approach, Sampson helps us creatively understand how objects “touch” us, challenging traditional views of fashion as commodity culture.” – Alison Matthews David, Ryerson University, Canada
