Fabric & Flesh

New materialism posits clothing as a material agent, part of a networked self, existing in ever-changing space and time. This interview-based project explores clothing’s bodily relationships through the work of new materialist theorists Jane Bennett, Daniel Miller, and Ian Hodder, and queer and feminist theorists Jack Halberstam, Sara Ahmed, and Rebecca Coleman. By “queering” the materiality of clothing, I argue that both queerness and materials exist in a liminal space. The orientation toward the material clothing in my research leads to becoming through bodily connection with the unseen and seen. Each interview focused on a single meaningful garment. The interviews of participants demonstrate the ways clothing and bodies act upon each other, giving care and changing over time. I argue that orientation towards the material and recognition of reciprocal bodily relationships leads to becoming that understands the body as something in constant flux.