Feeling Moved: A Critical Meditation on Fashion as Embodied Sensory Knowledge

The fashion industry is accelerating at an unprecedented pace, driven by neoliberal consumption and production methods, which often leads to the exploitation of people and the planet. Western-centric paradigms function and thrive through a visual dominance framework that drives fast fashion and mass consumption. In response to these harsh realities, Moving Garments Meditations provides a counter-narrative emphasising emotional durability and sensory connection by using somaesthetics, humour and introspective practices, such as yoga and meditation as artistic practice research tools, to pause and critically reflect on these issues. This paper demonstrates how embodied practices can foster deeper personal connection with clothing and have the potential to inspire more sustainable and ethical consumption and production practices at individual, collective and industry levels. ‘Feeling Moved: A Critical Meditation on Fashion as Embodied Sensory Knowledge’ contributes to the discourse on fashion’s practices of care by highlighting the sensory, emotional and introspective dialogue between the fashion industry, our bodies and the natural and built environments that fashion readily exploits.