designer and consumer, can find new ways of inter-
acting with these flows. Redirecting some flows and
boosting others
experience/standpoint
I have not trained as a fashion designer, for my stud-
ies have been in the fields of arts and craft, art history
and design and my road to becoming a designer has
not directly intersected with the fashion system.
However, for some years I have been working and
moving on its periphery attempting to understand
how its grey zones are structured and how they func-
tion.
My awareness of fashion comes from other direc-
tions. The first encounter was with the experience of
how making my own clothes offered me a social ar-
mour. Appearing in the anorak that I had sewn by
myself made me feel stronger when having to face
the tough schoolmates when starting at a new
school.
However, this anorak was neither created to make me
seen, nor help me hide. Its strength did not come
from its form or shape, but from the knowledge that
I had made it, made it with the pride in the craft and
skill I had acquired. No matter how small it was, my
ability rewarded me with a clear feeling of self-en-
hancement and even when it was left hanging in the
wardrobe at home, I felt remarkably different just
from knowing I had been able to make it. It was the
proof of an exploration and of a personal journey, of
heightened knowledge, concentration and skill. It
was a garment with a symbolic connection to fash-
ion, a resemblance if you will, a fashion item, but cer-
tainly not one that in any way resembles “the right
threads” worn by the coolest students at school. It
was cheap to make, but for me it was priceless.
Later, at university, I concentrated on fashion theory
whilst I also began a systematic remaking of the
clothes that were dying at the back of my wardrobe.
As I remade them I documented the various stages of
my work and collected these notations into small
open source cookery books. This is where my re-
search began, from the small scale and from personal
knowledge fostered at the kitchen table.
A relevant point as to the background of this research
is the training that derives from my participation in
a variety of collaborative team projects. Musical ex-
periments in bands, collective role-playing sessions,
fanzine writing, game building, cooperative craft
workshops, and art/design alliances, all form a back-
drop for how I came to understand the role of de-
sign. This is the practical engagement with team
working with all the accumulated pooled experience
and skills that are brought together to play in scales
ranging from delicate harmony to creative chaos.
Collaborative moments of empowerment and self-
enhancement result not only in a shared experience,
but also the possibility of building on the shared
work of others. These small fruitful currents of in-
spiration, built continuously on the rim of other
works, were like ever-expanding puzzles, music re-
interpretations, endless fantasy worlds, or the inge-
nuity of inventive combinations, samples and remix-
es.
This brings us to yet another formative experience
that resonates throughout this research; my adven-
tures with the recording of mixed tapes and the par-
ticipation in a shared cassette culture. The mixed
tape is a paradoxical act of creation as new worlds
and unique personal meaning appear by mixing
mass-produced components in form of popular
songs into play lists. The choice of this copied music,
often of low quality or “resolution”, is emphasised by
the “creator” with decorated sleeves and elaborate
handwriting. The tapes become personal treasures,
spanning from celebration and hope to intimate ex-
pressions and wishes. This assembly of ready-made
parts in new ways leads to the beginning of low-level
co-authorship and it also establishes the foundations
for forming a band. Sharing music, starting to play a
few covers, and then moving on to make our own
songs that although influenced by existing music
end up with a personal twist. It is the start of a new
musical journey that draws from certain creative as-
pects of those first mixed tapes and the first covers.
Perhaps this not unique, but somewhere in the mix
there is the hope of finding one’s own voice.
These practices have all been homemade concoc-
tions, modest proposals made for fun, for discus-
sions, for the enhancement of skills, for political will,
or for small change towards new goals (as these as-
pects often come together). They have been practices
of do-it-yourself works and explorations that in fact
most often turn out to be collective forays or parts of
general trends, even if they were felt as genuine and
authentic as I engaged in them. They have not been
subversive, “alternative”, or an expression of revenge
on an unjust world, but stem from a fascination on