Skipped Stitches: Palimpsestuous Mapping of East London Fashion in the 21st Century

Tracing the geography of two garments and one building, this thesis interrogates existing understandings of the fashion industry at the beginning of the millennium, whilst offering new, alternative maps with which to read it. These alternative maps are the product of research which embraces critical spatial practice, as defined by Jane Rendell. The practice engages with colour and making techniques found in the garments, resulting in paintings, collages, embroideries, and quilted assemblages.

The thesis asks where garments have been, and how we can map their stories. Each of the case studies are linked to a specific generation of fashion practitioners who entered the labour market just before, or just after the 2008 western economic crisis - a generation which has not been given significant attention by scholars of fashion, economy, nor urbanism. I employ a palimpsestuous method, influenced by the queer theory of Sarah Dillon, and anti-stratigraphic philosophy of Tim Ingold. This thesis shows how a queer, practice-led method such as this can offer new perspectives on precarious labour networks and how the transactions of both big businesses and ‘cottage-like’, or ‘micro’ industries have functioned in the near past.

Furthermore, it begins to map the architecture of an industry, and previously untold
stories of LGBTQI+ kinship in London at the beginning of the 21st Century. Particular
attention is given to the networks functioning within Hackney and Tower Hamlets, and their interconnection with networks across Greater London as well as a greater planetary spread. This process of mapping reveals concepts of ‘care’ and ‘sentiment’ as lens with which to consider these complex networks anew.

The thesis argues that a practice-based methodology, and the materially-engaged nature of such a methodology, is key to intricately mapping the networks and lives of fashion practitioners. It shows how the geography of clothes and garments, and a determination to account for material practice, can enhance our knowledge of heritage, people, and place.