Lucy Gundry

Project Description Pieces Please choose a bag, carry it around the gallery with you then return it to this table. Examine the contents inside and fill out a label. Thank you! These bags hold a selection of historical to present day pieces of clothing. Each piece carries evidence of previous wearing relationships, experiences and acts as a snapshot of a life story. Clothing plays an important role in the navigation and communication of our identity and selves. When dressing, the choices we make can communicate aspects of our distinct selves (e.g., the actual, ideal, or ought self), our personal identity, role identities and social identities and in some cases items in our wardrobes hold memories of past selves. (Çili, Bardey & Khadaroo, 2026). Viewers are invited to imagine stories featuring the pieces in these bags, perhaps by reflecting on their own life stories and wearing experiences or of someone else’s. This work serves as a ‘meaning-making resource’ (Masuch & Hefferon, 2018) for practice-based research in enclothed curating. Items loaned curtesy of Bath Theatrical Costume Hire Bio "Dr Lucy Gundry is a researcher, curator and lecturer living in Somerset, UK. Lucy lectures in critical design thinking at Bath Spa University and independently works with dress, fashion and costume collections for exhibitions in a range of public spaces. Lucy’s practice-based research convenes enclothed conversations around pieces of worn clothing to talk about identifying, belonging and absences in wearing relationships past, present and future. Drawing from creative, curatorial, critical and communication fashion theory, she puts this into practice by selecting, situating, staging and styling clothing to invite ‘other’ wearing stories.