Hort couture: an investigation to urban garden wear

Abstract

This master’s thesis explores the topic of urban garden wear. Gardens have inspired designers and artists for centuries, but the gardener’s dress has received little interest from fashion scholars. As the covid-19 pandemic showed the importance of greenspaces and gardens to physical and mental health, recent studies show that the number of urban gardening enthusiasts increased significantly. Therefore, the focus of this master’s thesis is to research why gardener’s dress has been overlooked in academia and how clothes could reflect the increased interest in urban horticultural activities. The main objective for the thesis is to challenge the frequent associations between garden wear and worn-out attire. Timeworn clothes could be appropriate for gardening in private spheres, but as the urban environment exposes us to the gaze of others, they are not suitable for all occasions outside the garden. In this way the tension between dressing for the public and private sphere as well as the marginal position of gardening outfits presented a fruitful ground for further research and explorations.

This thesis consists of theoretical and artistic parts. In the theoretical part, I start by providing a contextual framework for the thesis where I discuss the differences in dressing for public and private sphere. Moreover, I highlight possible reasons for overlooking the topic of garden wear that address social norms for the clothes and stigmatization of shabby attire. In addition to the literature review, ethnography and autoethnography carried around urban gardening practices in Helsinki provided valuable insights to the lifestyle of urban gardeners that influenced the artistic part of the thesis. In the artistic part of the thesis the focus lies on the collection making process, where I elaborate on visual and material research and expose the design development. The artistic part is a womenswear collection that proposes a potential wardrobe for the urban gardener with an emphasis on knitwear. The collection aims to balance between functional clothing and more fashionable attire to diversify the aesthetics of garden wear.

Although the collection is one approach to express urban garden wear, it does not provide exhaustive answers. Instead, this thesis argues that the stigma around old and dirty clothes is the main reason behind the shadowing of garden wear in literature. The topic of garden wear offers plenty of opportunities for future research as the number of urban horticulture enthusiast might continue growing. The collection suggests that there is a niche for fashion-aware urban gardeners, who are aesthetically aware in the urban garden as well as outside it. Therefore, the collection fulfills the aim of challenging the predominant shabby aesthetics that might often resonate with garden wear worn in private sphere.