Worn: Footwear, Attachment and the Affects of Wear

Shortlisted for the Association of Dress Historians Book of the Year Award, 2021

“Beautifully written, entirely accessible, poignant and profound” – Amy de la Haye

In a culture preoccupied with newness and a fashion system largely predicated upon it, what is the significance of worn clothes and why do they have the power to affect us so deeply? How are relationships to clothing produced and maintained through the embodied practices of wearing, maintenance and repair? Through a focus upon a single garment, the shoe, this book calls on readers to reconsider the value of the marks of wear at a time when fast fashion reigns supreme and interest in damaged, or worn, garments quietly increases. Bringing together anthropological and psychoanalytic theory with practices of handmaking, wearing, and photography, this book asks what is the embodied experience of wearing and the affect of the worn?

Beautifully illustrated in full color throughout, Worn is the first book to focus exclusively on the significance of imperfect garments as important aspects of our material world and culture.