Textile Tales: How textile objects build connections between individuals and across national borders and time

Everyday garments, party dresses, school uniforms, garments for celebrations and special occasions and a plethora of household and interior items made of textiles. The stories in the Fabric of My Life archive reveal a world of personal development, memories, societal development, migration, traditions, rituals, values – condensed life. They are archived as podcasts told in 12 different languages, e.g., Greek, French, Danish, Arabic and Farsi and each story is presented on the website by a headline and an image. They tell fact-oriented about the textiles and techniques used for garments, accessories and interior textiles combining it with culture, timespan, heritage and lived lives. The result is very personal stories in a context of use patterns and knowledge about textiles and garments. From a design perspective it is interesting to dive into this treasure box listening to the stories while exploring the fabrics, the construction techniques in a time and life perspective. What can we learn from the materials, the techniques in combination with use and product attachment? Combining the physical piece of garment, the thoughts and memories we have about it with changes in the society and the world. Is there something we can learn from the past studying techniques, construction, materials, use and memories, that is, reasons for keeping garments and textiles. And what does a selection of stories about inherited garments tell us? With this paper we want to investigate the relation between the micro- and macrostructures of dressing in a timely perspective, meaning the relation between material, technique, personal narratives, societal issues, and history. Thus, this paper looks more closely at six selected podcast narratives from a Danish context, as examples of the altogether 78 podcasts recorded throughout the project.