Repair of Fashion Objects: An Interview with Sarah Scatturo

Abstract

Fashion conservation practices could overlap with sustainable fashion design methods in some instances, and one of the most prominent upcycling methods, repair, is such an example. Sustaining the longevity of garments and repairing the damages to give multiple lives to a garment is a common intent for both practices, yet, the interventions and manifestations of repair could be opposite intentions. This interview with Sarah Scatturo reflects her experiences of repairing fashion objects from both worlds of fashion, inside the museum where delicate skills and in-depth knowledge are required, and outside where imperfections and practical applications are received well. This paper suggests that a garment's meanings deepen and change as the conservator interacts with each object for a long time, creating diverse memories. Fashion conservatory practices are similar to the Bergsonian sense of time, where fashion garments mean more than a temporal object whose duration, time, and memory are involved in every detail of the process. Thus, the perceptions about the fashion objects differ, and the decisions do not necessarily follow a linear path.