Slater, A., 2020.

3 Listening to dress

Mundane methods is an innovative and original collection which will make a distinctive methodological and empirical contribution to research on the everyday. Bringing together a range of interdisciplinary approaches, it provides a practical, hands-on approach for scholars interested in studying the mundane and exploring its potential. Divided into three key themes, this volume explores methods for studying materials and memories, senses and emotions, ,and mobilities and motion, with encounters, relationships, practices, spaces, temporalities and imaginaries cross-cutting throughout. In doing so, it draws on the work of a range of established and up-and-coming scholars researching the everyday, including human geographers, sociologists, anthropologists, urban planners, cartographers and fashion historians. Mundane methods offers a range of truly unique methods - from loitering, to smell mapping, to Memory Work - which promise to embrace and retain the vitality of research into everyday life. With empirical examples, practical tips and exercises, this book will be accessible to a range of audiences interested in making sense of the everyday. Martin Ball (2005) uses the textile metaphors of pleats and folds to explain the writing of history, where historians choose which points to bring together, what to conceal and what to reveal. This chapter applies these ideas to stories of clothes told from the perspective of memory. It uses oral testimonies from women who lived in the North West of England during the Second World War to unpack - or unfold - what their clothing memories say about their lives at that time. Listening to how these narratives are told, what is said and what is left unspoken demonstrates how our clothing practices are interwoven into our everyday lives, our sense of self and our sense of belonging to a wider groups of people, both at the time when garments were worn and at the time they are remembered. The chapter also provides practical advice for other researchers through its analysis.