Envisioning Fashion’s Invisible Woman

Timeframe: 2015-2022

“‘Envisioning Fashion’s Invisible Woman’ is a series of drawing-based projects designed by a fashion illustrator and her septuagenarian muse to inform understanding of the older woman’s relationship with fashion, and aims to raise her visibility within the fashion community. The work contributes to the ongoing debate around the older woman and her lack of representation within society and popular culture.

The universal language of drawing is used as a way of knowing to foster understanding of the physical interplay between the older woman and her clothes, and as a tool to navigate the tension between the conflicting visual codes for age and ‘fashionability’.

The research documents verbal and visual discussions on how the muse’s perception of her place in the fashion community impacts on her sense of identity, personhood and wellbeing, the evolving collaborative working relationship between the artist and muse during the research process, and the response of fashion audiences to the developing fashion drawings and insights revealed.
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