Events at The University of Manchester
  • University home
  • Events
  • Home
  • Exhibitions
  • Conferences
  • Lectures and seminars
  • Performances
  • Events for prospective students
  • Sustainability events
  • Family events
  • All Events

Management and marketing Seminar entitled "Lingering matter: The unruly geographies of polyester clothes"

Dates:13 March 2019
Times:14:00 - 15:00
What is it:Seminar
Organiser:Department of Materials
How much:Free
Speaker:Dr Elyse Stanes
See travel and contact information
Add to your calendar

More information

  • Speakers website

Other events

  • In category "Seminar"
  • By Department of Materials

Narratives of clothing reuse and repurpose have centred on second-hand economies, recycling, upcycling and DIY, fashioning a particular kind of ‘wasted’ aesthetic where stitching, darning and patching become visible. But what of clothes that don’t show signs of wear or decay, because they are made from human-made fabrics such as polyester, with material properties that degrade much more slowly than organic materials? Drawing on ethnographic ‘fashion journeys’ with young adults from Sydney, Australia, this paper follows polyester clothes, geographically and temporally, beyond spaces of production, to their everyday use, storage, divestment, reuse and recirculation. Reconfiguring concepts of fashion waste

questions how clothes become redundant: their material memories instead lingering in wardrobes, in stockpiles of divested objects and hand-me-downs, entering cycles of second-hand 

trade and ultimately, landfill. Polyester manifests a particular variant of material culture: both mundane and malignant, its feel and slow decay result in clothing that seldom slips from the category of surplus to excess in clear ways.

Biography

Dr Elyse Stanes is an Australian-based cultural geographer with interests in consumption, environmental sustainability and mundane/everyday/routine practices of clothes consumption. She is currently visiting the UK (Keele University) from the University of Wollongong on an Association of Commonwealth Universities Blue Charter Fellowship to work on a project on synthetic textiles, their lingering legacies and human engagements with them. Her PhD, which was awarded last year, traced the geographies of clothes with a particular focus on environmental sustainability.

Price: Free

Speaker

Dr Elyse Stanes

Role: Faculty member, School of Geography and Sustainable Communities, Faculty of Social Sciences

Organisation: University of Wollongong, Sydney, Australia

Travel and Contact Information

Find event

B46
Sackville Street Building
Manchester

Contact event

Dr Patsy Perry

0161 305 4145

patsy.perry@manchester.ac.uk

Contact us

  • +44 (0) 161 306 6000

Find us

The University of Manchester
Oxford Rd
Manchester
M13 9PL
UK

Connect with the University

  • Facebook page for The University of Manchester
  • X (formerly Twitter) page for The University of Manchester
  • YouTube page for The University of Manchester
  • Instagram page for The University of Manchester
  • TikTok page for The University of Manchester
  • LinkedIn page for The University of Manchester

  • Privacy /
  • Copyright notice /
  • Accessibility /
  • Freedom of information /
  • Charitable status /
  • Royal Charter Number: RC000797
  • Close menu
  • Home
    • Featured events
    • Today's events
    • The Whitworth events
    • Manchester Museum events
    • Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre events
    • Martin Harris Centre events
    • The John Rylands Library events
    • Exhibitions
    • Conferences
    • Lectures and seminars
    • Performances
    • Events for prospective students
    • Sustainability events
    • Family events
    • All events