Sartorial Becomings : Women, Tailored Suits, and Feminine Difference

This research examines women's becomings through tailored suits, aiming to detach the suit from its traditionally masculine symbolic. It investigates how historical, cultural, and societal factors shape assumptions about women's subjectivity in the context of tailoring and how women respond to these assumptions. Guided by feminist theories of sexual difference and phenomenology of embodiment, the study employs a multi-method approach. This includes ethnography, autoethnography, and semi-structured interviews. The research reveals the complex dynamics shaping women's experiences within tailoring, such as how tailors approach suit construction, how women navigate their social environments both within tailoring and in daily life, and how women embody gender through tailored suits. By highlighting these interactions, the study shows how women, through their suit-wearing practices, actively rework the imaginary of the suit in ways that nurture women's subjectivity and cultivate new modes of feminine embodiment. This is a doctoral thesis in Fashion Studies at Stockholm University, Sweden 2024.