Dalziel + Scullion

Immersion Clothing 2014

This work consists of a series of four garments; each made to facilitate a different type of interaction with the outdoors. The specific design of each garment focuses the wearer on an action that is a purposeful immersive act, acting as a marked contrast to the usual purpose of outdoor clothing that shields and protects and, by extension, isolates the wearer.

Silhouette allows the wearer to shift their shape from that of a human to something more akin to an erratic boulder, from where the wearers centres and stills themselves, to watch and examine other species around them. Rain, lets the wearer experience rain directly and luxuriously on their head and face, rather than sheltered beneath hoods and umbrellas. Recumbent encourages the wearer to go out and seek a place to lie down where tree canopies and skies can be observed, when no longer on their feet, the surrounding acoustics seem to increase in volume. The Gatherer jacket incorporates a sequence of bespoke pockets and files to collate field findings.

All four garments have been designed and made in Harris Tweed, a Hebridean fabric that might at first appear traditional, even conservative, but by necessity must be woven on a hand loom in the weavers own home to earn its name, its self-regulating production makes this a powerfully political cloth.

Tailoring and construction of the Immersion Garments was in collaboration with Min Scotland.