PORTAL 002 Reader is the result of a workshop during the State of Fashion 2018 exhibition in Arnhem in which the economic, social and emotional value of clothing worn by visitors of the exhibition, is collected and researched. The collected data is visualized and brought together in a reader designed by Beau Bertens.
PORTAL is a research project that explores the economic, social and emotional value of clothing and offers a ‘way in’ to understanding garments from a multitude of overlapping and intersecting perspectives.
For every edition, participants are asked to take off a garment, lay it down on a large Tyvek sheet, outline their garment with tape and answer a series of questions regarding its production (Where was it made?), materials (What is it made of?), ownership (Is it yours?) and value (How much did it cost? What is the emotional value?). Subsequently connections are made between the garments by literally drawing lines between the items of the various visitors, creating a network that reveals connections between and intersections of personal, economic, social, cultural and political realms surfacing a complex and layered system of the reality of clothing. This culminates in a map, or landscape of personal stories that connect to form a fashion network which inverts our gaze, shining a spotlight on the intricacies of our own outfits and extraordinary aspects of the everyday as opposed to the myth of the exclusive fashion image. PORTAL thus provides an entryway to a vision that begins to prioritise values that are ephemeral and yet integral in “influencing hearts and minds and shaping the way we live together”. It captures and visualises information that circumvents established hierarchies and disrupts the homogeneity of the commercially driven fashion system with the refreshing diversity of fashion that is worn; embodied and imperfect.
The collected information of each PORTAL edition is visualized and brought together in a reader using the sixteen PORTAL questions as their starting point.
For PORTAL 002 Elisa van Joolen worked with visitors of State of Fashion in Arnhem. The pages of the PORTAL 002 reader, designed by Beau Bertens, show the surprising details that emerge from the collective document of State of Fashion in Arnhem. 41% of all garments and accessories are gifts. Do we treasure or wear more often those garments that have been gifted? What does it mean to "half" own a garment, share it rather than own it or borrow it? How do these shifting relationships to ownership change our interactions with a garment and perhaps more importantly how are our interactions and relationships with other people influenced through the modes of transaction and exchange that are enabled by this?
Type: softcover with plastic sleeve
Dimensions: 210 mm x 297 mm portrait
Pages: 12
Art Direction: Elisa van Joolen
Contributor: Ruby Hoette
Photography: Anouk Beckers and Elisa van Joolen
Researchers: Anouk Beckers, Cleo Van Woensel, Emma De Meulenaer, Marina Sasseron de Cabral, Naomi Bruintjes, Rebecca Nevins, Stijn Pommée, Tjerre Bijker, Tonya Sudiono
Graphic design: Beau Bertens
Release date: Spring 2018
Binding: staples
Edition: 100
Color: Black, pink and red – riso printed
Printer: Raddraaier
Language: English
Text editing: Ruby Hoette
Made possible by: State of Fashion 2018
Production: Warehouse
Production assistants: Anouk Beckers and Marina Sasseron de Cabral
