D E F I N E C L O T H I N G

‘It may not be possible to define a particular piece of clothing or a specific garment as an item of fashion, but it should be possible to ascertain whether a particular piece of clothing is functioning as fashion. In the same way as a bin liner, for example, is not an item of dress until someone wears it. So a garment is not an item of fashion until someone uses it to indicate their actual or ideal place in a social structure.’

Barnard, M 2002, Fashion As Communication, Second Edition, Routledge, London.

Erwin Wurm, Plastic Process

the general response to whether the shirt was being worn was "from some angles"






which garment is the model wearing - the more conservative, recognisable tailored jacket or the unconventional but 'worn' screen/mini dress?

at what point does this garment stop being considered ‘clothing’?
What makes a a piece of clothing a piece of clothing? At what point does a piece of
clothing no longer qualify as a piece of clothing? If the garment is constructed from
a material which is sheer, loosely woven or has holes in it, is it still clothing? if it is
an object/smell/substance not usually associated with the body but is interacting with
the human form is it clothing? is the act of ‘wearing’ something purely subjet to
proximity to self, or is it more dependent on the accepted manner or representation
of how a human would traditionally ‘wear’ something?
To paraphrase Magritte; if I say I’m wearing a garment, is it a garment?
I suggests that as long as the seams in a garment relate to particular anatomical
points on the body which allow the wearer to achieve freedom of movement then the garment is a functioning garment. The further the fabrication moves around the body from these particular points the more ‘decorative’ it becomes.
The façade, or face, of a building or dress, could be considered to be decorative. The foundations or structural devices on which the ‘face’ is supported is, however, intrinsic to the design’s purpose. For this reason, i regard the fabric between seams, darts and other construction devices to be ‘filler’ and therefore surplus to requirements.