“My Cherished Garment”: Rethinking Fashion, Attachment and Durability

Abstract Confronted with the fashion industry’s serious socio-environmental impact and acknowledging that fast fashion provokes unstable relationships with clothing, accelerating loss of value and early disposal, this article explores those cases in which garments are still valued and attachment is strong. We are interested in identifying the motives behind the bonds that are developed toward cherished pieces of clothing. For this, we have analyzed more than 600 short stories, written by men and women from all over Chile, that justify those garments that remain in their closets for many seasons and reasons. The results allow us to identify a set of attributes and their correlations, enriching the discussion about the relationship between people and dress.