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

See Things Differently

Garments are both material and message. They cover us up – and reveal us – physically and emotionally. They hold potential to alter how we feel and how we see things, which in turn, change the things we see.

Gender and height

"This skirt was handed to me by my aunt, actually, a couple of years ago. I used to wear this a lot back when I was in third year, three years ago, when I would only wear dresses and skirts for a whole year. I just was trying out a different way of dressing, as the women did back in the day.

It is my favourite article of clothing that I wear to painting class, so it has a lot of paint marks all around it. I feel like, you can kind of move more [in a skirt], there is more freedom. You know especially if it’s not so short of a skirt. I feel more free just to walk around and to do things... I like to stand up for others… It’s not just about being a female - I’m also just 5’1” so I’m pretty short and I was like, ‘Small women! – can have a voice too!’ [So the skirt became about] gender and height and the power relation in a way as well. It’s a lot of odd things."


Vancouver - January 2013
Photograph by Jeremy Calhoun