First time to write this project log on the same day of happenings. I haven’t caught up with the previous ones but would fill the gaps in between as it flows.
Unpicking fashion- Dress your opposite session with Ruby Hoette and Georgina.
Somehow I didn’t receive the instruction for this week or I missed the emails in my inbox, so I didn’t present in the Zoom Room with the opposite clothes. (but I do have a plan in mind, but a bit cheesy tho. . .)
Georgina talks a bit about her practice, i.e. friendship as a part of the collaboration.
We decided to structure the session as: talking about individuals opposite dress first, discuss and then prepare for a walk outside. Recording or documenting the process in any means, come back and share the experience and feeling.
(My network today is extremely horrible, what I see is just PowerPoint slides of everyone on screen with jagged sounds coming from another planet.)
Here are everyone’s opposite dress or plan (arranged in speaking order).
Ruby: dressed in a bright jumper, cannot really tell whether it is neon yellow or green. (According to Ruby, a lot of people are asked to describe what the suspects wear after the criminals, but surprisingly very few could have a clear impression on the clothes, which might reflect. How surprisingly less attention has been paid on clothes in detail when we look at people.)
According to Ruby herself, she seldom wears bright cloths, normally blue, grey and more neutral colours.
Bright colour clothes are not the opposite but normally not comfortable (because not normal haha), changes how people see her, maybe with more confidence and self-conscious when dressing brightly.
It may change the way she moves and her body language.
Georgina: dressed in her boyfriend’s clothes (but in her own pants), with a hat.
(I was paying a bit attention to her hat in the starting of the session, thinking: hmmmm. . . this is a very classic hat.)
Georgina regards herself as a “thing”, and Dress the opposite to her is to become someone else, make her “not the thing”. (actually very cute)
Her boyfriend has a certain dress code, specific outfit and iconic hat. Through encoding these dress code and steal her boyfriend’s clothes, she feels she is in costume as him. (but definitely not becoming?)
“. . . I love the way he dresses, but I feel I’m way underdressed. . .”(even the same garment and dress code may have different social and emotional circumstances on different people?)
Ruby asked me whether Georgina has become another person based on this dress compared with last week. It is a bit difficult since we still know each other very well and distanced and isolated by the screen. Therefore I cannot judge whether the dress is opposite to her identity, or the identity I think she has. I observed Georgina become volumised due to the layers of the clothes,
Ruby: Do you recognise Georgina?
Me: Yes, of course. I recognise people through their face.
The fact that Georgina didn’t dress her pants up makes the clear distinction between style and identity of the upper and lower portion of the body. Since the camera normally shots the upper body, we won’t notice the strange parallel until Ruby asked her to stand up.
Zhi-ting: (our new member in the studio) tries different, more feminine style of clothes, dark colour.
She thinks she changes her shopping and dressing behaviour in different places (like tend to buy more local trendy items) and would be influenced by the surroundings through her dress and behaviour. (Is it because of the atmosphere of the surrounding or the unspoken social rules that we have to follow to a certain extent?)
(Ruby: If I’m in a different environment, I would dress in normal clothes for comfortableness.)
Mia: Opposite means inside out! I wear my underwear bra on top of my top. (actually not notice till she reveals her coat, much surprise!)
To expose the intimate garments which are not usually seen, reveals something intimate but not skin. (So to what extend we think underwear is the extension of our own skin covered by them?)
Georgina suggests that women’s underwear, not lingerie and designed underwears, usually has the connotation with “invisible”, either the seamless in design or the invisibility in public, the invisibility of the trace of existence under the outer clothes. (some people do feel very embraced for the visible mark of panties on the tight pants etc. . .)
I haven’t get prepared at the moment I talked about my plan to literally dress the opposite: i.e. turn my garments inside out and dress in them.
Ruby thinks I should have a full dress in opposite instead of just a few items and pay attention to the feeling of body and skins when experiencing the opposite side of the garment.
I also talk a bit about my fringe, Without a fringe (due to haven’t dried my hair properly last night) makes me feel different and exposed. Fringe, even just a thin layer, could disguise the face and see the world through, a more distant and comfortable way to observe and be observed. (or I am just lack of confidence to expose my forehead haha) I compared my student id card (somehow the shadow of the fringe covers almost half of my face, makes it really different from me with the bright forehead.)
Mia also talks about the accessories on her body, without them she might feel a bot naked or strange, and wearing them and taking them off almost become a kind of ritual practice. But for Zhi-ting and me who do not wear many accessories, we feel the exact opposite, and would constantly pay attention to these add-ons.
For the past batches, they seem to dress the opposite, wear the set and travel to the campus, stay in the clothes one day. While for us, due to the restricted moving space (me in isolation) and shortened time exposed to the surroundings, maybe our attempt and feasibility have changed.
There’s loads of interesting tension between the dress, the opposite dress in home space and public space; the formal and informal dress, dress up (to be noticed and seen in a certain way) and dress down (to be less noticed). The choice of dress is perceived by the others and forms their version of stereotypes about us (but may also reflect the stereotypes about their own as well).
How do we conduct a certain type of identity in dress in a certain way?
The zoom screen also constructs our identities, we judge people who we might not meet based on their background, interior space and costume identity. But the virtual meeting may also expose the intimate domestic space to the other who just know each other.
How much you want to expose yourself to the outside?
(break and dressed up walk)
I turned my Tee, coat, pants and socks inside out and wear them in the ordinary order. To wear pants with zip inside is a bit difficult. I also put a lot of hair clips on my hair (as opposed to my normal style without accessories), wear a mask and glasses, go to the corridor.
Finding someone’s in the kitchen, I go inside straightway with my flatmate Shixuan looking at me confusingly: why so many clips?
I explained the objective of the project to her briefly.
Shixuan: And you wear glasses.
Me: Anything more?
Shixuan: No. . .?
Me: Didn’t noticed my clothes are all inside out? Even my pants?
Shixuan: . . . nope. . . I thought that’s a design feature or styling.
(random chats)
The second flatmate Pingting comes in and recognised me as someone else due to the change of hairstyle.
She couldn’t figure out who I am for a while, asked about the excess hair clips but also with noticing the “opposite” clothes until I mentioned.
With discussion among us, I decide to wear my shoes oppositely: left to right and right to left. It is a different and strange experience to do so as the shape of the shoes no longer fit the shape of the feet, and I become more aware of the inner space of the shoes and also the experience of waring(the feeling is constant and unable to neglect).
The third flatmate Xia Lu comes in: why you have so many hair clips and what happened to your shoes? Again not recognising the strange bits of the clothes, maybe because of the texture and pattern of them?
Pingting: I sometimes carelessly wear my tee inside out without notice.
Actually, after wearing them a while, I almost forget the opposite dress, except the strange feeling on feet, physically heavier head and the intentional habitual action to find my pocket to put my phone.
Therefore, the habit of wearing clothes may difficult to change even certain features of the clothes has changed.
The last flatmate Yuxuan (yes another Yuxuan) joined our session did not realise any uncommon and chatted with us straight away: I thought you were washing your face so you pinned u you fore-hair?
She later brings the rabbit hat to me and suggests to become an animal opposite to human.
(returned to Zoom)
Zhi-ting feels she is more matured through the dark girly dress while Mia experienced people’s conscious gaze when walking out, she also feels a bit strange when walking pass a primary school (even though no kids are there currently). (Venue may add specific meaning and connotation of the garment, what is suitable and what is not, what is acceptable and what is not.)
Think of the time when we reveal or cover our face with intention. Wearing masks may stand for health and display a certain identity, political status even. It may give you a feeling of comfort when seeing people wearing masks and feel anxious and scared when they are not wearing in such a pandemic situation.
Today’s thoughts are really too long and I would just end here.
Something suggested to check out:
Kenneth Goldsmiths’ patchwriting
Film Notebook on cities and clothes
MoMA exhibition Are Clothes Modern? & Items; Is Fashion Modern?
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