Fabrics of Memory

Abstract

This article seeks to further examination of clothing with respect to associated experience and memory. The focus is the historical and personal narrative of one sweater worn by a young Canadian, Leonard McCann (1927-2015), in a Japanese internment camp during WWII. Tracing the travel of the sweater from Canada via the Red Cross to Manila, increases awareness of the potential significance of apparently mundane items of clothing. The manner in which such items can contain or embody memory, beginning at the time of their making, enables study of one moment within a broader history of clothing. The story of McCann’s sweater moreover enables investigation of the connection between clothing and trauma. Indeed, it is hoped that this study can stimulate further consideration of the curation of such clothing so that the value of seemingly ordinary garments becomes established in the discourse of fashion theory and history. Relating both the familiar look of the sweater and the narratives attaching to it, reveals a sense of living memory that also permits understanding of complex socio-political conditions. Perhaps this approach can augment empathetic as well as critical praxis in the discipline.