Historical registry of our families through textiles

[abstract]

Dress provides an insight into a person’s value system, as well into the state of the socioeconomic environment of the time. The purpose of this paper is to describe the design of a mobile application and website where users of all walks-of-life can document their heritage by capturing photographs of family members’ clothing throughout their lifetimes. Dress evokes memories, feelings of nostalgia, and speaks volumes about a person’s personal history and heritage. This application will allow each and every person who logs on and participates to document their lives and the important role dress plays in their lives, whether they are rich and famous or not. This will enable the creation of a large archive of information representing all of the populace, not just the rich and famous, for future research based on the subjects’ own words and visuals.

Keywords Historical costume; Social media applications; Meanings of dress; Textile; Sociocultural environment.