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

Garment Co-operation

Some garments require a wearer's involvement for them to work well on the body. Others act together differently: using physical form and structure to co-operate with life. They aid and abet and mould our world.

Careful removal

"This jacket has been around for a really long time. I got it when I just out of high school. And it was that jacket which makes you feel you look old and like professional and it’s like you would wear it for a job interview but then it just became a part of my sort of regular winter rotation.

I wore [it] so much, that the lining was totally shredded on the inside and it got to the point when I was embarrassed to take it off in front of people because it was so trashed on the inside. So I always took it off very carefully… I would make sure that I was facing away, and then fold it over the chair to hide the big shredded lining. I would never, just shrug it off onto a chair that I was sitting on [inside out], I would never do that! Because if I stood up, you could see everything! I was totally conscious of it…"


Vancouver - January 2013
Photograph by Jeremy Calhoun