Places in the Making: How Fashion Design Transforms the Multitude of Scales

This short paper questions what it means to make a sense of place through fashion design. The notion of placemaking has been discussed in the literature of design and fashion yet remains fragmented, especially due to the complexity of fashion. The nuances of place should be carefully examined when relating to fashion design. The ways in which the notion of place is conceptualized in fashion are introduced to explore impacts of designing fashion in two very different scales: the geographical space, such as cities and nations, and the human body. Fashion design transforms these spatial and bodily scales continuously through its dual system of material production for clothes and meaning production for fashion. Conceptualizing multiple scales of placemaking in fashion design can contribute to the understanding of its impacts in geographical and personal levels.