Seamless? Fashion, skin and the unconscious making of self

What is it about?

From the moment we are born, our experience of being touched, held and wrapped shapes how we understand ourselves in relation to others. Drawing on psychoanalytic theory of Didier Anzieu, this article explores the unconscious connection between skin, garments and our sense of self. The article reads seams, hems and edges in clothing not merely as technical features, but as psychological thresholds that negotiate the boundaries between self and other, inside and outside, belonging and separation. The act of making and wearing clothes is understood here as a continuous and often unacknowledged process of self-construction. Drawing on her own practice as a garment maker and handweaver, the author brings together insights from psychoanalysis, anthropology and cultural studies to show how the making and wearing of garments reflects the ambiguities of modern identity. Like a garment with its visible seams, the self is always in the process of being put together.

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Photo by ian borg on Unsplash

Photo by ian borg on Unsplash

Why is it important?

What we wear can profoundly affect how we feel. This article takes that experience seriously, offering a theoretically rigorous account of why garments matter at a psychological level. By connecting Anzieu's concept of the Skin Ego with anthropological theories of liminality and the material practice of garment making, the article develops a framework for understanding clothing as a site of identity formation rather than mere self-presentation. The author's position as both theorist and practitioner gives the argument an unusual grounding, anchoring abstract psychoanalytic concepts in the concrete experience of making. The work contributes to growing scholarly interest in materiality and embodiment across fashion studies and material culture.