The Aura Of Clothing

Worn Worlds by Peter Stallybrass was a trip to read. This semester, in one of my classes, we have been marching our way through so many structurally detailed texts on the sociological theory behind fashion, so it was super refreshing to read a piece based in poetry and fiction. Stallybrass described a similar phenomenon on the subliminal nature of clothing as the theorists we read did (like Barthes, Bordieu, Hebdige, etc), but none stuck with me like this particular reading; maybe because of the more personal style of writing, after I finished a homework assignment on the piece I began reflecting on my own life. The story of Allon delved pretty far into bringing about a visible spirit—a fully-imagined ghost—from clothing. I have never experienced, or really sought after, a conjuring this strong, but I understood what Stallybrass was saying about there being a resonant human energy contained in a piece of clothing. After my grandpa passed away, I got to keep two of his hats. Throughout the next few years, these hats made me feel more connected to his memory than any photos I had of him in my home. It was an aura...it was a material and an immaterial presence at the same time.

However, unlike Stallybrass, I never wanted this aura to be confrontational. I kept one of the hats on a little stand in my room, and maybe wore it out of the house once or twice for special family events. It was piecing as peacing, as Stallybrass says, a piece of clothing that always kept his memory present and peaceful within my living space. The other of the two hats, I wore to complete an all green fit for skating...albeit somewhat selfishly, but during that day, I wore the green hat out, I felt as one might at a family dinner. I was respectful of the space that hat and I were sharing, with a familial love that I had never given any other piece of clothing before. Stallybrass’s openness on his own experience really opened me up to reevaluating and understanding my coexistence with my grandpa’s old hats.

On a broader level, Stallybrass brings up a lot of good points about the value of clothing. This system of value goes much deeper than a monetary or even a utilitarian value. It is a value that is a part of our spirits; something intangible that still fills a gap. The smell of my closet from home that stays on my sweaters brings back an entire life where I was home. It’s really only clothes at this point that can do that for me. They have kept me grounded when the concrete streets rise and fall like sweeping waves. They are my family and friends, because I got this hoodie with my friends, let my dad wear this sweater. Stallybrass took a simple concept and remade it with the infinite wisdom that it takes to really study humanity.