Leanne Prain’s Textile Storytelling and the Never-Ending Tale of a Leather Jacket
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8069.22.3.05Keywords:
textile storytelling, Leanne Prain, leather jacket, clothing as a narrative, social responsibility in fashionAbstract
The aim of this article is to analyse the role of clothing in storytelling, framing textiles as carriers of narratives. The analysis adopts the narrative-semiotic approach. The empirical material includes “The Artist Series”, press interviews with the brand’s founder, and accompanying photographic and textual media narratives. The interpretation is structured around four categories: the narrative identity of clothing, the social agency of artefacts, ethical and environmental contexts, and the multilayered nature of textile storytelling. These are not a closed framework, but flexible tools for reading the material and capturing its symbolic and social dimensions. Their selection reflects the specificity of the case: the jacket functions both as an aesthetic object and as a carrier of relationships, values, and cultural practices. Drawing on Leanne Prain’s concept of textile storytelling, the article examines the leather jacket as a narrative medium. It presents a handcrafted biker jacket from the By The Namesake atelier in Toronto, showing how clothing connects the past, the present, and the future while contributing to social awareness.
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