Deep roots: the inextricable mesh of dress and identity and its persistence into later life. An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis study.
Mbeledogu, Ezinma (2025) Deep roots: the inextricable mesh of dress and identity and its persistence into later life. An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis study. In: IFFTI Conference 2025 - Forming Futures: Pedagogies, Communities, Technologies and Ethics, 24 - 28th of March 2025, London College of Fashion.
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By using dress as a lens and method this paper will investigate the notion of identity amongst older people from the global majority communities living with dementia in care homes in London. Through exploring ‘textile stuff’ (Hunt, 2014), the resulting dress narratives shed light on their perception of belonging, community, in-betweenness (Bhabha 1994) and home.
Gadamer’s notion of horizons (1975) and more importantly overlapped horizons was useful here. My horizon and that of the research participants overlapped in part, that is, collectively we were a group of black and brown immigrants living in London. This shared aspect of our horizons created an environment of trust from the outset and therefore provided greater access to their dress narratives.
Given the increasing numbers of people living with dementia from global majority communities, this research is timely. The forecasted growth for this cohort is staggering; in 2011, in England and Wales there were 25,000 older people from the global majority communities living with dementia, by 2026, this is expected to double to 50,000. Additionally, the forecast for 2051, of 172,000, shows an incredible close to seven-fold increase, in a period of forty years. Which when compared to just a two-fold increase for the general UK population, within the same time frame, provides a sufficient reason to be duly concerned about the relative dearth of research into the experiences and needs of this overlooked population (www.alzheimers.org.uk).
This study aims to significantly widen the repertoire of meaning attributed to textiles. This will result in the development of tactile interventions that can be adopted in practice to enhance the well-being of people living with dementia.
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