Exploring our relationship with clothes.

PROJECT STATMENT

“Every day we get dressed.

Choosing which clothes to wear can be emotionally powerful. It can be liberating, freeing, connecting and inspiring. Throughout my career, I’ve photographed many people who use clothing to express who they are with via a richness of individual approaches. 

While I attribute so much joy to fashion and clothing, it is also responsible for the exploitation of people and is one of the largest contributing factors to worldwide pollution and waste. 

Why? 

The conversation at present is centered around fast fashion with the responsibility sitting with large companies to produce less. While I wholeheartedly agree with this I also think there is another important viewpoint.

Do you have a good relationship with clothes?

Our relationship with clothes is individual, nuanced, complex, and complicated. Even if you love getting dressed, and feel clothing has a positive impact on you as a person - the clothes we choose can change how we see ourselves and our bodies. They represent who we are and allow for responses from and connections with others.

Our ongoing aim is to create a conversation this impact, exploring clothing’s effect on individuals, communities, our mental health, and the planet. 

We want to build a community of like-minded individuals who love clothes but are interested in being socially and environmentally aware. We want clothing to make a positive impact on our lives, but not at the cost of other people or the planet.

On this journey, our intention is to revisit our own relationships with clothes - trust me, I am far from perfect and will enjoy rediscovering myself alongside you. 

We will ask questions to cultivate thoughtful conversations as individuals, with our family and friends, and as a community. 

We will read, research, and discuss modern literature and thought-provoking content around clothing and our relationship with self-expression, the need to belong, and the environmental impacts our choices have. 

We will create a space to discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to how we feel about clothing. To be unashamed, vulnerable, open, and understanding that this is a complicated subject. Everyone will have a different experience, but collectively maybe through respectful discourse, we can make a change that will inflict positive change not only our individual lives but the overarching expectations on the industry and its’ environmental and social impact. 

Thank you for your time. We hope you’ll support the project. “

-Liz