The English version of our book Intimacy – Embodied knowledge, creative work and digitalization in contemporary Finnish fashion is now published and available at Aalto University Shop! Slightly updated and revised, the book is translated from the original Finnish version, published in 2022. Intimacy is a peer-reviewed book based on Annamari Vänskä’s, Jenni Hokka’s and Natalia Särmäkari’s research for IDA-project on intimacy, creative work and design at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Department of Design. The book is also related to the Intimacy -exhibition at the Design Museum (8 October 2021–13 March 2022).
Description of the book:
A garment is not just a garment: it is a link between the self, our peers and our surrounding world, specific to a time and a place.
Intimacy is a book about contemporary Finnish fashion and international fashion studies. It considers the intimate relationship between the body and fashion from diverse perspectives: fashion as a tool for identity expression, the significance of the fashion designer’s own bodily experiences in their work, and the contribution to fashion of wearable technology, which generates data on the wearer’s bodily functions. This book is also about how fashion is always a product of its surrounding society and culture. Like our society, fashion is becoming mediatized, digitized and datafied, and the impact of social media is evident not only in fashion publicity but also in our use of fashion. In the new millennium, clothes can now be virtual. At the same time, our understanding of the wearers of fashion is shifting, as young designers challenge the strict body norms and the whiteness of the fashion world. Intimacy presents the processes involved in Finnish fashion designers’ creative work, linking them to topical fashion studies discourse.