Wardrobe Studies (2020 – 2021)
“I feel like my mum is here to watch over me, or sometimes, I would want to bring her [earrings] along to witness some moments together.”
(Henry, model, videographer and violin teacher)
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“My parents are quite…not quite, very open-minded, it’s like if you want to play Barbie, play Barbie, that’s what they taught me…I had all the Barbies that I wanted, they [my brothers] were playing He-Man [a superhero doll], I bought She-Ra, with a horse, literally. My parents were like, if you want She-Ra, buy She-Ra…That’s how I was raised.”
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(Perry, senior executive in the financial sector)
Previous research on fashion, clothing and accessorising practices typically stressed either the symbolic and identity-creating or practical and habitual functions of fashion, often neglecting its affective, emotive and mnemonic aspects. Drawing on affective theory and the agency of things, we theorise how the affects, feelings and emotions attached to active and inactive fashion objects evoke and are evoked by the consumer’s ongoing reminiscence, reconciliation, and renewal of memories. Remapping the intricate relationship among consumers, memory, affect, and fashion objects, we employ wardrobe study interviews to reconceptualise the clothing consumption, storage and disposal practices of male fashion consumers in Hong Kong and their trans-temporal selfmemory-object relationships.
