I Dress For Me: A Photographic Exploration of Clothing, Age and Identity

For this major research project, I Dress for Me, I investigated the relationship between clothing and life narratives for senior women through interviews and documentary-style photographs of the women’s wardrobes. Based on theories of identity and everyday dress by Irving Goffman and Efrat Tseëlon; fashion and age by Julia Twigg; and the practice of wardrobe interviews by Sophie Woodward, I set out to draw upon the life experiences of participants to gain a better understanding of how an individual’s relationship with clothing changes over time. The motivation for this project was to create a diverse representation of senior women within fashion. The result was gaining intimate accounts of women’s experiences and relationships with clothing and how they connected to life transitions, the aging body, life narratives and memory. Each woman’s relationship with clothing is complex and layered, as shown through their varied and diverse wardrobes that reflect their life narratives.