The dressed and styled human body is irresistible to analyse. Framed by the idea that people’s dress and engagement with Fashion is a fundamental component of how we all conceive, create and convey personal and shared histories, the following ‘mini-essays’ are my attempt to unpick the cultural threads that hold our wardrobes together. Aide-mémoires, tongue-in-cheek, discursive, works-in-progress, I began writing them in 2013 in the spirit of Roland Barthes’ Mythologies and Umberto Eco’s Travels in Hyper Reality, although rarely with the same perspicacity, precision and pace.
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61. The Reckoning, through fashion
This article argues that fashion, rather than being trivial, serves as a crucial ‘live workshop’ where people process complex emotions and negotiate identity amid global crises. Unlike purely rational approaches, fashion integrates emotion and intuition, offering a model for addressing unprecedented challenges like war, environmental collapse, and political polarisation more effectively.
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60. The Re-fashioning of Emotion
What follows is the text of a talk I presented at the Annual Conference of the Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory & Material Culture, ‘A Polyphony of Emotions: Thinking Affect in Heritage, Memory & Material Culture’, (2-4 July). I want this to be a hopeful talk, but I start with a caveat, a paradox and…
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59. The Responsibility Dilemma
Can fashion increase personal and social responsibility? Last week, I attended my first infrared sound healing class. I listen to podcasts to help me sleep, some with ASMR sounds, so I was curious what the class would involve and keen to acquire new relaxation techniques. Several days have passed and I continue to debate if…
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58. The Tribe Drive
Can Fashion harness evolutionary biology to create a better future? The story of human life on Earth, from its ‘Once Upon A Time’ to the determinant of whether we enjoy a ‘Happily After Ever’, is decisively shaped by people’s evolutionary-adapted desire to belong to a tribe, according to David R. Samson, associate professor of biological…
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57. The TED Talk (2)
The following text is a lightly edited transcript of a TED talk I presented at TEDxRHUL in January 2024. The recording can be accessed here. ‘Timeout: Why we need to re-think the narrative of fashion’ “At a time of crisis, we need to think about a radical reset”. This dramatic call to action was made…
Dr Benjamin Wild 