Threads of Memory: Affect, Acquisition & Attachment in Clothing Consumption

THREADS OF MEMORY is an interdisciplinary project that blends theoretical analysis, auto-ethnographic study, and exhibition to reframe the socio-cultural understanding of clothing from a product of trend, novelty, and commerce to a practice of memory, meaning, and sentiment. The written component draws from affect studies (Ahmed 2010, Manning 2016), consumer theory (Baudrillard 1994), and critical fashion scholarship (Ruggerone 2017, Tienhoven 2021) to argue that the circular consumption model stimulates higher object attachment and possessive longevity than the bought-new, or linear consumption model. I then conducted an auto-ethnographic case study using the affective analysis methodology adopted by Tienhoven and Smelik (2021), in which I documented the mind-body experience of wearing fifteen garments from my wardrobe and related my affective response to the way that I acquired each item. My findings emphasize the circular consumption model’s increased potential to transform fashion from an exercise of bodily currency to a ritual of meaningful embodiment. To advocate for a reformed consumer consciousness within the Phoenix community, I hosted an in-person gallery and open defense. All fifteen garments from the case study were exhibited alongside two interactive installations in which attendees shared stories of their most sentimental fashion objects and attempted the affective analysis method on their own using a provided garment. This exhibition further translated the project’s themes of materiality and embodiment into a physical space with printed manuscripts of my written work as well as a printed catalog of my case study. Ultimately, this project urges a reformed approach to clothing from product to story, object to subject, transaction to narrative.