“A Day in the Life of Daisy the Blouse Maker in 1916”: Storytelling as a Creative Research and Teaching Methodology in Fashion History

The article presents a creative storytelling methodology for working with incomplete research materials where the desired outcome is to understand fashion’s design and manufacturing histories from the perspective of workers on the factory floor. Using an amalgamation of primary research from business archives, oral histories, trade papers, and contemporary fiction, a day in the life of a fictional blouse maker named Daisy is presented here as a short story. Written and continually refined during the process of my doctoral study, Daisy’s story pieces together the process of industrial blouse design and making in the ready-made industry in Britain in the second decade of the twentieth century. Drawing on ideas present in Actor-Network Theory, the maker and her machine form the basis of a conjoined historical ethnographic study. Finally, through pedagogical application, I suggest two approaches for teaching this technique to students to heighten engagement with research, stimulate new avenues of thought, and offer creative enjoyment during the process.