Formation and revival: Entanglements in older men’s clothing narratives

This article draws on two consecutive qualitative research projects. In the first study, the aim was to develop an in-depth understanding of older British men’s experiences of ageing through the lens of fashion and clothing. The follow-up study built on the previous findings, by exploring various points of continuity and change in the social performance of older men through their evolving fashion and clothing practices. Between 2013 and 2014, a series of in-depth, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with five mature, fashion-conscious men (based in the Midlands, UK), which alongside wardrobe methods revealed the various ways in which they used their embodied relationship with clothing as a mechanism for articulating and negotiating their ageing bodies, individual and collective identities. A decade later in 2024, a series of follow-up interviews and personal inventories with three of the original study participants shines new light on the richness and complexity of the men’s lived experiences, and the interconnectedness of their social and bodily performance as they continue to age. Drawing upon Karen Barad’s seminal work on agential realism, and particularly the concept of entanglement, which proposes the emergence of individual traits through interactions and intra-relationships, we analyse the participants’ past and present accounts, garments and photographs of their selected favourite fashion objects as inseparable, intertwined and iterative. This approach to analysis revealed various entanglements in the older men’s unfolding clothing narratives in relation to their fashion identities, social performance and agency.