World 131 is a world where people personalise and embellish their clothing with mantras, ideas, thoughts, and feelings enabling them to reach out, to share with others, and to invite dialogue and a change and exchange of views.
In 2021 a gentle groundswell of activism emerged following a major research study into the impact of social media on self-esteem and self-confidence. A disparate group of UK makers began to use their clothes to openly communicate and connect directly with others, offering mentoring, encouragement, advice whilst modelling their vulnerability.
What if …
people wore their heart on their sleeve without fear of reprisals, with the opportunity to discuss and amend and explore?
Issue:
Keeping clothes for a lifetime. Personalising them, updating them, changing them as the wearer ages.
Inspiration:
The personal and the public aspects of tattoos. The idea of clothing as a way of identifying and finding your tribe. Wearing your heart on your sleeve. Personal, experiential ways to emotionally and positively connect. Making this physical, moving away from anonymous, vitriolic, unreal social media where dialogue is stilted and curated.
This World was contributed by a Fashion Fictions contributor (located in the UK) using a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence which allows others to share and adapt the work in any medium and for any purpose, providing that they credit the author and share their material using the same Creative Commons licence.
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