Getting Dressed: A Wardrobe Performance

This performance posits the act of dressing as an artistic practice. It serves as a vulnerable space to visualize the negotiations that take place, both internally and externally, as we attempt to dress for the world and for ourselves. I asked willing parties to send me an audio recording that detailed their process of getting dressed, to which I created a soundtrack and performed the narratives in front of my mirror and closet. The resulting video positions the seemingly personal as also part of a collective experience by creatively applying multiple narratives to one visual subject. It becomes a community closet, a subversive space for sharing that is in conversation with spaces like a free store or clothing swap—like the NYC Community Wardrobe.

For another part of this project, I played with reconstruction of used garments and created a piece I delineate as Art and Fashion Praxis. The "Dramatic" shirt featured in the performance is made of two different garments; the shoulders and chest piece being from a blue and white dress that had "love" printed on it, and what was a version of Regina George's white tank top from "Mean Girls" that reads "A Little Bit Dramatic" in pink letters. Thinking about themes of emotion, social power, and agency, I called on the words of Audre Lorde by handwriting with a fabric marker an excerpt from 1981, "Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism." Born out of considerations in the Art and Fashion Praxis fields, my work considers themes of commodification, gender and identity, memory, social power and visual studies. Through a fashion lens, this project aims to elevate the essential role that material has on the body and in our relationships with the world.

Future elaboration of this project might take the form of a gallery exhibition, made up of socially engaged works like the Wardrobe Performance, free clothes, collaged and reconstructed garments, and creative essays. It is my hope that presenting the act of dressing as a form of art mobilizes the latent agency of wearers and consumers toward a more holistic fashion culture. It is my hope that through this performance, and through the renditions that follow, social art proves to be a palatable lens through which to pose possible solutions for the social reform of the fashion system as we know it.

@elianashoffner @communitywardrobenyc