An international fashion research project exploring the 'craft of use'

Shared Use

Sharing clothes saves resources if it means fewer pieces are bought. For garments to have multiple users, fit matters; but they also have to be shared with the right people. Sharing works when a bond and joint identity is reinforced by common use; when a memory is re-lived; and when access is gained not just to more and different pieces but also to the values, taste and sensibilities of the owner.

Colour connections

“This pink silk shirt was given to me by one of my closest friends who I’ve known since I was eleven. And she really didn’t want to give it to me but eventually she did and I think the reason I like I so much is that it’s testament to a very, very long and very, very strong friendship. I think one of the things I like most about it is it’s a bright, coral pink and the girl who gave it to me has a tendency to wear one colour head to toe which I am completely in awe of because I can’t […] I seem to really struggle to wear any colours so, it’s kind of, it’s like a window to a world which I really aspire to because I have so much respect for people that wear colour because they look like they’re so much fun. And so I think a little bit of her and her attitude to dressing has come through, through that with me. I think, one of the other good things about it is I wear it in lots and lots of different contexts and I always feel great in it, partly because it is so colourful. But it’s really beginning to show the signs of where I wear it. It’s got biro on it from where I wear it at work and then kind of a bit of suntan cream here and there from where I’ve worn it on holiday and also a big red wine stain which is where my flatmate wore it. So it’s beginning to show the marks, I think, of quite a few lives.”


London - March 2011
Photograph by Kerry Dean