An exploration of sensory and psychic relationships with shoes, which draws on practice and performance-based research and asks how our attachment to footwear is maintained through the embodied experience of wear.

Shortlisted for the Association of Dress Historians Book of the Year Award, 2021 “Beautifully written, entirely accessible, poignant and profound” – Amy de la Haye In a culture preoccupied with newness and a fashion system largely predicated upon it, what is the significance of worn clothes and why do they have the power to affect us so deeply? How are relationships to clothing produced and maintained through the embodied practices of wearing, maintenance and repair? Through a focus upon a single garment, the shoe, this book calls on readers to reconsider the value of the marks of wear at a time when fast fashion reigns supreme and interest in damaged, or worn, garments quietly increases. Bringing together anthropological and psychoanalytic theory with practices of handmaking, wearing, and photography, this book asks what is the embodied experience of wearing and the affect of the worn? Beautifully illustrated in full color throughout, Worn is the first book to focus exclusively on the significance of imperfect garments as important aspects of our material world and culture.

"In a culture and fashion system that continues to be preoccupied with newness, the publication of Dr Ellen Sampson’s book Worn could not be more poignant ... this research succeeds beautifully in its aim of returning the body and everyday practices of wear to the center of our relationships with clothing." - Fashion Theory

"An innovative work on the physical and psychological traces left by shoes on the human body." - Revue Critique (Bloomsbury Translation)

"Perhaps more than any other media, worn dress can offer insights into lives lived and shoes, which over time alter to echo the contours of our feet, can be particularly redolent with meaning. Ellen Sampson’s exploration is beautifully written, entirely accessible, poignant and profound. It will resonate with us all." - Amy de la Haye, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, UK

"Ellen Sampson‘s evocative and thoughtful book eloquently explores the transformative relationships between ourselves and what we wear. Using shoes as an entry point into this larger discussion, Sampson’s investigation of this entanglement is a joy to read." - Elizabeth Semmelhack, The Bata Shoe Museum, Canada

"Sampson’s outstanding book explores the entanglements of object, subject, thing and theory with confident yet insightful deftness. This perceptive and timely exploration of the embodied, worn experiences around garments offers important methodological thinking that will help transform future fashion research." - Hilary Davidson, dress and textiles historian and curator, Honorary Associate, University of Sydney, Australia

"Ellen Sampson’s book takes us on a powerful journey, helping us think through our physical and psychic entanglements with the worn, used clothing that forms the bulk of our own wardrobes. Using a practice-based approach, Sampson helps us creatively understand how objects “touch” us, challenging traditional views of fashion as commodity culture." - Alison Matthews David, Ryerson University, Canada