1 Stage 1

Question 1: What does the term ‘fashion’ mean to you?
Answer: “Up to the minute designs/trends, be that clothing, interior design, holiday destinations, etc. “

Question 4. Are you puzzled or please by the emphasis that is placed on clothing?
Answer: “I can kinda understand it (sometimes) but I think people should be able to dress to please themselves their mood etc though preferably covering the bits I’ve no need to see ;)”

Question 5. What is your everyday relationship with clothes like?
Answer: “I usually try to wear colour. Hate the obsession NZers have with black! Needs to be comfortable and usually practical also. Do try every now and then to spruce it up, though suspect more through nagging of friends than faith in my ability to dress…”

Question 6. Are you disappointed by the choices available to you for dressing?
Answer: “Yes. Can never find anything to suit or pretty or age appropriate, etc. in my size. Get frustrated clothes shopping. Cost is sometimes an issue.”

Question 7. On a scale of passive to highly involved – what is your relationship with fashion like?
Answer: “Marginally involved”.

Question 8. Do you find dressing an easy/enjoyable/other experience?
Answer: “Other. Hard and sometimes soul destroying.”

Question 9. Does clothing allow you to be imaginative and express yourself?
Answer: “Sometimes. I just wear what I want, e.g. like today I’m wearing an orange dress, medium violet red tights maroon coloured shoes, as best as I can tell from the colour chart on the monitor :) I love the happiness of it!”

2 Stage 2

The participant has a large walk in wardrobe that is quite expansive and impressive as it dazzled the Hackers with its vibrant array of colour and pattern. The wardrobe was mainly grouped according to garment type i.e. dresses together, tops together. There were a lot of items of beauty with quite a large section dedicated to ‘formal/dressy clothing and shoes” and it is obvious the participant has taken a lot of time, energy and money to assemble all these items. It indicates that the participant is much more than ‘marginally involved’ in clothing as claimed in stage 1. There are however quite a lot of garments that are not worn or have their tags attached. The participant has a few duplicates of garments that she likes.

3 Stage 3

Participant 5’s wardrobe was as mentioned previously surprisingly extensive. She has amassed a beautiful array of vibrant, pieces, which she has sorted with care.

She was delighted to try on a large portion of her wardrobe to show us how pieces worked on her. We spent the longest amount of time with this participant swapping stories and advice about garments. We all enjoyed this interaction.

She expressed a degree of anxiety about knowing how to wear garments, what was appropriate and how to style outfits. She mentioned about how she used to be a very active sports person and how she enjoyed wearing a uniform, as you didn’t have to stress about what to wear.

It was interesting to us that participant 5’s outer layers that she wears everyday were not really shown to us or talked about at the hack.

Participant 5 showed us so many versions of herself though her wardrobe when asked what image of herself she wanted to portray, she was a bit unsure. We wondered if she might want to embrace all these aspects of herself- creative, sophisticated, practical as some of these ‘images’ do not get public visibility.

4 Stage 4

You are in a bit of a conundrum as you say that fashion doesn’t fit into your life (stage 1), that you hate clothes shopping; yet you have one of the biggest if not THE biggest wardrobe that we visited!

There is an apparent disconnect between you and your wardrobe as you focused on showing us your favourite garments (a lot unworn, with tags on) but didn’t show us your practical items that you wear more frequently.

It is obvious you derive pleasure from these garments and made some great choices in what you purchased– we just want to encourage you to wear them and embrace all these aspects of your personality. We would like if you could try utilising your entire wardrobe and document your ideas and thoughts.

The long coat gives you an air of drama, sophistication and power that we feel you would enjoy and could enhance your daily life. The shoes could give you an attitude that you might relish. Embrace all the possible images you can project from the palette of your wardrobe! Have fun with your wardrobe and let it truly serve you!

5 Stage 5

“In Queenstown now and you'll be thrilled to know I wore my long fake sheepskin coat.... and my bright blue pashmina!”

“I wore the Black dress for NY Eve...head was in good space.”

6 Stage 6

Providing an open, non-judgmental forum to talk about clothing practices

We the Hackers want to invite you to the workshop to meet the other participants in the Hack. We want you to have an opportunity to talk about your clothes; a subject you were surprisingly quite passionate about (based on stage 1). We were with you and your wardrobe the longest of all the Hack visits! We think this forum would be a great platform to expose you to different approaches that work positively for people who’s wardrobes are not necessarily dictated by conventional fashion.

You have demonstrated how creative you are (the hand knits you wore in stage 1, see picture) and we think you can build on these skills and gain confidence in how this can be a way of expressing yourself. We can show you ways of adjusting pieces in your wardrobe (with the ideas you already have) to make garments more flattering to your shape. You have a vibrant amazing wardrobe that needs to be put to use!

We would also like to offer you a styling workshop using the items from your wardrobe helping you to form outfits. This would aim to alleviate some of the anxiety you have from time to time about what and how to wear items. We could supply an itemized list of what to wear and how to wear it. You can even contact us daily/weekly for advice.

Related links

About The Local Wisdom Project
Competencies - Craft Of Use