Forgotten Wardrobes: Keepers of Lost Clothes

Once purchased, clothing spends the majority of its life ensconced in a wardrobe until it is selected, to be worn or is finally forgotten about or discarded. The wearing of a garment also changes over time as a person’s body size, taste and lifestyle develop. The research explores these changing facets through a pedagogic research project – Keepers of Lost Clothes – that centred on embedding sustainability within the fashion design curriculum. It explored the contemporary relationship we have with discarded garments and considered how this clothing could be remade and reconsidered. Garments were created from clothes that wearers had fallen out of love with; found in the back of the wardrobe, the bottom of the drawer or on a charity shop rail. They were washed, ironed, unpicked, dismantled, cut and re-stitched, to recreate new clothes to fall in love with. The Keepers of Lost Clothes project is evaluated in relation to the sustainable approach of the Make Do and Mend initiative established in the Second World War. This encouraged people to remake, recycle and envision new ways to wear their clothes at a time when garment production had virtually ceased. Key factors are identified from both initiatives to ascertain a global direction for remade and recycled fashion and how this can enrich the future of fashion design and education.