Textile Tales - How textile objects build connections between individuals and across time

Everyday garments, party dresses, school uniforms, garments for celebrations and special occasions and a plethora of household and interior items are made of textiles. The stories in the Fabric of My Life podcast archive reveal a world of personal development, memories, societal development, migration, traditions, rituals and values. They are archived as podcasts told in 12 different languages, e.g. Greek, French, Danish, Arabic and Farsi, and each story is presented on the website by a headline and an image. They tell fact-oriented stories about the textiles and techniques used for garments, accessories and interior textiles combining it with culture, timespan, heritage and lived lives. The result is very personal stories in a context of use patterns and knowledge about textiles and garments. From a design perspective, it is interesting to dive into this treasure box listening to the stories while exploring the fabrics and the construction techniques in a time and life perspective. Is there something we can learn from the past by studying techniques, construction, materials, use and memories; in other words, reasons for keeping garments and textiles? And what does a selection of stories about inherited garments tell us? With this paper, we want to investigate the relation between the micro- and macrostructures of dressing in the perspective of time meaning the relation between material, technique, personal narratives, societal issues and history. Thus, this paper looks more closely at six selected podcast narratives from a Danish context as examples of the 78 podcasts recorded throughout the project.