This very special item – What is the nature of those attachments?

Anita Grey has collected and published 100 stories of the emotional attachment behind ‘that’ particular garment people will never throw away. Initially she tried to decode the shared stories by translating them into images, as pure classifications but this didn’t work well, it’s just too hard to translate the emotions and relationships people have with certain items. Instead here she has shared a collection of the stories as well as the impact the research had on her and her own journey discover the sentential value garments can acquire through a life time and more.

100 Stories on Values and Attachment

Tangible objects and the stories those objects convey became a collection of revelations transcribing material objects, of a high value to its owner, into feelings and emotions they evoke within him/her. Those stories of attachment that people shared have value as the core element. While reading though all 100 stories, I have noticed, that each item and a person it belongs to had special relationships. Varied contexts explained why it became a cherished object. However, that it would be next to impossible to split those stories into clear cut categories. A garment became valuable due to the experience responders have had with people, either as a memory of a person or event that included another individual, or the way the garment made them feel in a society when being surrounded by people. It felt like I was allowed to know a secret that usually is hidden in a wardrobe.

When collecting stories, I didn’t think of sharing mine. Though when reflecting on them I realised something about myself here it is: in my wardrobe, there is this one shirt I have that my father used to possess when alive. He loved the fish pattern which I found terrible from the first day I saw it. To keep it always around I altered the shirt so it fits me and ready to wear as the value is not in the garment but memory it contains. I still remember the day when I saw him in the kitchen wearing it for the first time being so proud of his new purchase. With time passing by and images fading away from the memory, I feel like I need this one tangible item to remind me of him, as my fear is to forget him being too busy coping with the fast pace of a modern life.

The outcome of the research was surprisingly unexpected, when you realise that objects are kept for the memories of the past they contain and all those memories are narrowed down to moments shared with special to our life people. Living during the times of prevailing material culture our society is charged guilty for consuming more than needed. We tend to squander and abuse nature around us to satisfy those selfish needs. However, there is a ray of hope that we would be able to breakthrough consumerists patterns of behaviour and as people still care for each other and cherish experiences they have together.

Virginia Faedo

Brother’s hoody

An item of clothing that has special value to me is a hoodie with written ‘army’ on it. It was a present my brother got when he was on a military mission in Kosovo. It, definitely, was love at first sight. Wearing it is like switching off my brain. I feel ‘home’ when wearing it. To look after it for me is just washing it in the washing machine. In return from this hoody I got warmth and comprehension. I wear it during winter, at home, or sometimes even when going out. I would say that I have special relationship with it. It is like being wrapped in my brother’s arms. 

Noel Urena

Hoodie

My garment is a Billabong hoodie I bought at OBX back in 2008. Yes, when I saw it was ‘love at first sight’. I really liked that summer and that hoodie was like the ‘souvenir’ I took to remember and awesome experience. Every time I wear it is like saying ‘rock and roll, let’s go for it!’ So, I wear it when going to vacation and/or going for a new experience. I hope to have it for a long time and be able to give it to a son or a grandson as a gift. Hoping they use it with the same sense I use it. The hoodie is the one in my profile pic. I use it when visiting the Grand Canyon and 9 different states in the US last year.

Miriam Hester

Jumper

My item is my dinosaur jumper. I bought it last December in Harper & Lewis in West Quay in Southampton. The jumper was pretty much the first thing I saw and I bought it immediately. The look of it and its illustrations are very 1990’s and remind me a lot of the books my brother used to read and the stories we used to play. Every time I wear it I feel a bit set back in time and also a bit more like I’m a boy. There is a spot in the bottom left corner that had been washed out and I can’t seem to remember how it happened. But I still like to wear the jumper because I like it so much and it feels comfortable to wear. My idea of what it represents and the memory are more important to me than what it actually looks like. Usually people ask me for the names of the dinosaurs but I hope no one notices the spot. So, I guess it made me a little more conscious about how I treat my other clothes. I also like wearing the jumper to cheer me up even though or maybe because I bought it in a time that I found most challenging.

Simohamed Lamkhibicha

Vest

My garment is a vest, because of some memories, I bought it in an outlet almost more than ten years ago. Actually, it was a normal garment when I bought it. It acquired its value after I had experience wearing it, so it reminds me someone every time I put it, wash it or just look at it. So, after ten years a vest normally is not good anymore to wear it, but this one is as I have looked after it very well. So, I don’t put it in the washing machine, I wash it by hand instead. What I get from it I don’t know, but I feel good once I put it on. I feel comfortable may be even close to that person in the moment I wear it, so maybe it pays me back in this way.

Valentina Pokrovskaya

Blouse

A long blouse/tunic – black with big blue and pink flowers has special value to me.  I have received it from my first love long time ago – he did it himself. I feel younger (smile) liberated when wearing it.  I apply no special treatment, but it still looks great after 15 years. I wear it in summer time – either as more formal (when I wear it with white trousers) or casual with jeans. It went through a lot with me, so it knows me pretty well (smile) including secrets how my body have changed through those years.