Seaming as luxury: how handmade fashion makes us think

What is it about?

Interest in the handmade, the bespoke, and the slow is growing, even as fashion production becomes faster and more disposable. This article asks why. Drawing on psychoanalysis, anthropology and the author's own practice as a garment maker, it argues that making by hand is not simply a nostalgic reaction to industrial production. It is a reflective process, a way of attending carefully to the relationship between self and material, and individual and society. Seams are where the trace of the maker is most visible, where time, skill and attention leave their mark. As disposable goods and abstract luxury branding reshape consumer culture, this trace matters. The article proposes a new understanding of luxury: one defined by the quality of attention brought to making and using things.

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Photo by Rob Griffin on Unsplash

Photo by Rob Griffin on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Questions about the value of the handmade, the ethics of luxury production and the human cost of fast fashion are gaining urgency across academic and public debate. The author writes as both theorist and practitioner, giving the argument a rare dual perspective, and grounds abstract questions about value and authenticity in concrete, tactile experience. The article also challenges prevailing assumptions about luxury and authenticity in fashion. At a time when the fashion industry faces increasing scrutiny over its environmental and ethical impact, this reframing of luxury as something earned through attention rather than purchase offers an alternative way of thinking about what we make, buy and value, here and now.