Worn: Footwear Attachment and Affects of Wear

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? 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 power of the worn?
 
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 used garments quietly increases.
 
Beautifully illustrated in full colour throughout, Worn highlights the beauty and value of imperfect garments and the power of the worn. Presenting the creases, crumples and stains, which litter our clothes, as evidence of lives lived and journeys taken, the book presents the wornness as an important yet often overlooked quality: one which has the potential to change our relationships to our clothes. 

”Evocative and thoughtful, [this] book eloquently explores the transformative relationships between ourselves and what we wear ... A joy to read.”  -Elizabeth Semmelhack, The Bata Shoe Museum
 
“Beautifully written, entirely accessible, poignant and profound. It will resonate with us all.” - Amy de la Haye, London College of Fashion,

Worn is published by Bloomsbury Visual Arts
 
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/worn-9781350087187/