Action iiiiiiiiii

My Closet, My Story

I liked the actions that I did without thinking. I have three closets and I started by documenting my clothes in them. I wanted to document all the clothes in both of the closets, but it took a lot of time to document only one of them. So I went with one of the three closets. I photographed 150 clothes.

1/3 of my clothes

During the documentation process I vividly remembered stories related to some clothes. My clothes seemed like a diary notebook. The memories flashed back to me as I folded my clothes for photography. Some of my clothes are gifts from dear people and some of them are made with my own hands. I could see stronger attachments with some clothes. I bought some of them with my first earnings and some are souvenirs and part of my travel memories to other countries.

Another point which attracted my attention was the fact that I have a lot of clothes from foreign brand and they are usually from European and Turkish brands. I could barely see any aspect of my home culture in my clothes. Only 12% of the clothes that I documented were made by me. I think that is a small number considering the fact that I work in fashion and I know sewing as well.

clothes that I made myself

Another thing which got my attention was the fact that I mostly used fabrics with patterns or some embellishments and paintings, but in foreign clothes most designs are with simple fabrics and they are usually unicolor. I never looked at my closet the way I just did. I understood that I mostly created the stuff that a foreign brand does not offer, such as Manto which is an Islamic wear in our country. I started questioning myself. What is in Western aesthetic that attracts us? How our clothing taste has changed? Is it changed or we are more attracted to the branding strategies? Is it the colors which attract us or the cut or the pattern?

This thinking process made me search for traditional clothes of Iran. Traditional clothes in Iran is not that common nowadays but some part of Iran wear their traditional clothes for some special occasions such as wedding. What is really unique in Iranian traditional clothes is the use of mixture of sharp colors, patterns and handwork embellishments. When I looked at my closet I saw that I have clothes with a wide range of colors as well.

When I started this action I wanted some of the cohort to join the action and I mostly wanted to work with my classmates who are from western countries. I wanted to see whether there is a difference between color choice and choice of fabrics between two different cultures (eastern and western cultures). Unfortunately, no one could participate in the action.

I investigated my closet to see what percentage of my clothes are from non-Iranian brands. Almost 60% of my clothes are from brand which are not in my hometown. The clothes are usually the ones that I wear outside the house.

non-Iranian brand clothes

During the photography process I realized I have lots of clothes that I totally forgot about them. I bought lots of clothes and I am waiting for a special occasion to wear them. I used some of the clothes that I have no more than 3 times and haven’t wear them for a long time. Some clothes are made with uncomfortable materials and even by knowing this fact I bought them anyway. Maybe because they were beautiful or in good price. Some clothes shrank or they are not small for me now, so I cannot wear them anymore. All these clothes are consider almost half my my closet.

clothes that I have never worn or worn less than 3 times

It was a shucking number for me. I felt really bad for my irrational buying. The worst thing was that I gave a lot of clothes away a couple of months ago and still I had a lot. I thought about what derived me to buying the clothes that I probably won’t use? I am sure that marketing and good price play a big role. I also thought about the pandemic and how it changed people’s buying habit. It impacted my buying habits, but I am not sure whether it is because people cannot gather together. Another thing which impacted Iranian’s buying habit is the drastic increase of price of Dollar compared to IR Rial. Social interactions surely impact our buying habit for clothes during the Pandemic. Lost of brands focused on slag and cozy clothes during the pandemic considering people’s feeling and less social gathering. Another question is that: Is the buying habit changed really or did the pandemic increased the online buying? Lots of people around me do online shopping as a hobby during the quarantine periods. How can we change our buying habits really? How can we reduce the fashion waste?

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