Personal Collections: Women's clothing use and identity

Women's relationship with clothes has been explored within a range of theoretical discourses about fashion that utilise the concept of ambivalence. This paper acknowledges that this may be a useful conceptualisation but argues that there is an absence of focus in most of these approaches concerning the reality of women using, reflecting on and generally living with their clothes. Using original research with a sample of 15 women, this paper attempts to integrate existing approaches and explore the complexity and ongoing-ness of the process of self-presentation through clothes. It argues that women have an dynamic relationship with their clothes that can be grouped around three co-existing views of self; 'The woman I want to be', 'The woman I fear I could be' and 'The woman I am most of the time'. These three views illustrate women's attempts to achieve satisfying images as they engage with clothes to create, reveal or conceal aspects of their identity. A range of social constraints is evident but the accounts also reveal that the women often endeavour to challenge, subvert and rise above these constraints. Furthermore, these endeavours are likely to be experienced as pleasurable, making clothes selection and use a positive force in women's lives.