The Clothes I Live In

This work explores the relation between the body and garments by illustrating the cycle of dressing, wearing and undressing in woven images. Based on experimental methods, such as scanning and photographing, images of garments are generated capturing garment details, surface qualities, movement, folds and volume. These demonstrate the constantly changing relation between the body and garments within the cycle of dressing, wearing and undressing. In translating the photographs and scans of the garments into weaves, a shading technique for jacquardweaving is applied that enables a translation of an image of a 3D-garment into a flat weave keeping the 3D qualities present in the picture. Through a gradation of satin weaves, different hues are created in order to define shadows and other surface qualities. The changing relation between the body and garments is interpreted in different ways including the body’s presence as well as its absence which results in immediate material responses of the garments and demonstrates the various appearances of the body within this relation. This work results in a variety of woven images pointing out the different stages within the cycle of dressing, wearing and undressing. By using the image as a tool, its pictorial value of capturing moments of change and succession is emphasized. With this work, a new perception of bodily shapes in textiles is provided. Instead of imitating the body’s presence in garments through 3D – forms, alternative ways are shown in how to achieve a corporal illusion in flat weaving-constructions