Paper Short Abstract:

This paper examines how personal narratives emerge and evolve through everyday clothing practices, focusing on how individuals un-write and re-write stories associated with their garments. By analyzing over 3,000 personal narratives gathered during the “Pasado de Moda: Historias de una colección” exhibition in Chile, it highlights how ordinary clothing is imbued with multiple meanings, reshaping mainstream fashion discourses and bridging dress heritage with contemporary experiences.

Paper Abstract:

Clothing, as an intimate element of daily life, carries stories that intertwine personal, social, and material dimensions. Yet, these narratives are not fixed; they evolve as individuals reimagine and reinterpret their garments, challenging and enriching dominant fashion discourses. This paper explores these processes of un-writing and re-writing clothing narratives through a participatory curatorial initiative conducted at the Museo Histórico Nacional in Chile. The “Pasado de Moda: Historias de una colección” exhibition (2022–2023) engaged visitors in reflecting about their own garments, resulting in over 3,000 written responses—an unprecedented archive of personal vestimentary narratives.

By examining this archive, the paper delves into how individuals repurpose and reinterpret garments to reflect personal identities, sociopolitical perspectives, and emotional attachments. It discusses cases of vintage garments adapted to contemporary lifestyles, upcycled clothing imbued with distinctive meanings, and everyday attire transformed into symbolic acts of care and resistance. These practices demonstrate how storytelling in dress transcends consumption, connecting individual experiences with broader cultural and material narratives.

Aligning with the panel’s focus, this paper contributes to understanding how everyday vestimentary practices reconfigure the meanings of clothing. It reflects on the mechanisms by which garments become vehicles for storytelling, both at an individual level and within museum contexts, fostering a dialogue between past and present. Ultimately, it suggests how these narratives can inspire new approaches to fashion heritage, sustainability, and curatorial practices, revealing the transformative potential of ordinary garments in shaping cultural and social discourses.