Second Skin’s Sensitivity: Memories and Consciousness

In order to explore the relationship between people and clothing products, this study addresses material culture and consumption in recent years in the face of the construction of heritage narratives related to the history of fashion design. According to the social circle of values consecration, connections between subjects and objects are fluid and the approach to the material culture and memories can be created and conduct. The history of fashion can be restricting to the materiality of objects or including the intangible elements related to this. The study is based on theoretical approaches and bibliographic review; a case study and ethnographic research on fashion exhibitions and correlated subjects; and comparative analysis including five hundred institutional exhibitions promoted in the last 50 years. This research also comprehends an exploratory study on the project Tati-Viana, which resulted in a fashion design output included in the heritage collection at the National Costume Museum (Portugal). Results showed that emotion and the relationship between people-objects through memories can be an alternative and deliberate tool for sensitizing actions to conscious consumption.