Fashion and ageing is a research project where we discover how three women and two men aged 65 and over, have used fashion in different periods of their lives. Partly to challenge but also to adhere to norms associated with age, body, sex, class and ethnicity.

The focal point has been to highlight that clothing is an expression that we use throughout our whole lives and that the creation of our identity never seems to be finished but is instead an ongoing process.

Based on the participants’ stories and together with them, we have created five individual items of clothing, which today are owned and worn by the participants.  The garments have been documented in form of a portrait on each of the participant wearing their personal garment. The photos were taken in collaboration with the fashion photographer Morgan Norman. We have also photo documented the whole working process; during the interviews, sketch work, fitting and sewing.
Vera
Even though she claims to have no interest in fashion, clothes have been important to Vera. Clothes in relation to her body. What she chooses to expose but mainly what she chooses to hide. Vera’s dress becomes a paraphrase of a dress once worn by Ester Williams (Veras teenage idol).

Vivi
Vivi’s wardrobe is an archive of memories, patterned items that all carry stories of when they were worn and how they came about. We collect some of these memories in a new pattern for a ceremonial skirt and resurrect Vivi’s interest for sewing and embroidery.

Karl-Anton
Karl-Anton has wardrobes full of clothes that he has bought and worn during his many work related travels, mainly to South America. He is reminiscent of a chameleon in his relationship to clothes, so in his shirt we summarise and make visible his past through a pattern edging.

Eva
Eva has always been interested in politics, society and sustainability and has been involved in several organisations and demonstrations. She has early experiences of the importance of clothes as a means of expression. For Eva we create an anorak with pockets containing her present convictions.

Göran
As a businessman Göran thought the dress code was too confining and he chose to distinguish himself by wearing a bow tie instead of a tie. We let this rebellion spread from the bow tie to the cut of his suit jacket.