Worn again: Experts on the classic outfits we just can’t throw out
Sentimental followers of fashion share treasured memories of the forever frocks and footwear they can’t bear to let go
With the likes of Marie Kondo and the Home Edit, it feels like we should be constantly clearing out our clutter.
From the heels that are too high to the little black dresses we can no longer squeeze into, the trend has been to discard – and detox your drawers and wardrobes.
But new Netflix series Worn Stories suggests if something sparks strong memories, you should definitely hold it dear.
The show, based on Emily Spivak’s bestseller of the same name, weaves narratives around items of clothing. From a man with a tie made from scraps of material by his seamstress grandmother to a dress gifted to a widow by her late husband and the sweatshirt an astronaut took into space, every piece is interlinked with an interesting story.
Clothing is a link to our history, as Georgina Ripley, senior curator for modern and contemporary fashion and textiles at National Museums Scotland, explains.
“This whole topic is very pertinent to museum collections as it’s these types of pieces that people treasure that they may later offer to museums because they are so special, and they want them to go to a good home,” said Georgina.
“Clothing elicits a psychological stimulus.
“If you look at fashion through history, like the Roaring ’20s, or Dior’s post-war New Look, which was a very feminine, nostalgic kind of fashion, they both followed and were in part a reaction to wartime restrictions. We partly wear clothing to comfort us. Sometimes it’s loungewear which makes us feel cosy and it’s like it offers a big hug, but other times it’s clothes that give us confidence and hold us in a different way.
“There is a power in what we wear, whether a cocktail dress or cosy knitwear.”
Georgina says it’s the historical connections – both physical and psychological – that makes us want to keep certain items.
“We hold on to things that no longer fit as there’s an emotional connection to the occasion when we wore it.
“But we also hold dear some things that do still fit as they are so familiar, it’s like putting on a second skin that has moulded to the contours of our bodies.
“With clothing in museum collections, there can be physical signs of wear, such as little tears, but there is also something intangible, a kind of memory of a person’s body in the material. “When we start to mount clothes for an exhibition, we get a real physical sense of the person who used to wear them. Whether it’s something literal, like make-up stains, or something you cannot articulate, there is something embedded into the fabric that is unique to the person who wore it.
“The pieces of clothing have had this whole life and are full of memories.” After 13 years in museum fashion, it’s no surprise Georgina herself has a few old items she can’t bear to part with.
“I still have the first occasion dress my dad bought me when I was 16,” she said. “I don’t even know if it still fits – but it’s still hanging in the wardrobe at my parents’ house and it’s so beautiful and full of memories that I won’t let them throw it away!”
Here, we speak to three women about the clothes they hold dear and what makes them so special.