Braiding As Research Method: Building Relational Understanding for Fashion

Abstract

This article introduces ‘braiding’ as a process of enquiry for fashion concerned with deepening understanding through writing, dialogue and participation with others. It sets out a step-wise process for bringing together people’s experiences about a theme and generating insight from this joint place, a point of relation. The paper explores the potential of braiding to diversify knowledge production in fashion research and to bring forward understanding that emerges from interdependence. Examples of braiding-as-enquiry are interwoven through the piece.