Aging & Social Change: Ninth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

Decoration of the body is one of the three classical function of clothing – and the most important, also referred to as dressing up. Furthermore this doing is an essential part of everyday life, from head to toe, from the cradle to the grave. However it is more than a private doing, dressing up is determined by the images of old age and the polarizing fashion concept - young versus old - embedded in rules and moral requirements. In the paper we direct the gaze to discourses and pictures. By shaking our optical toy (kaleidoscope) first one see the conventional dressing up and listen to the discourse analysis of cultural gerontology, cultural theory of the body, sociology of dress. The demographic change offers a chance in dressing up. Subsequently we visualize selected results of our study, dressing up based on the concept of intergenerational designing with its developed key criterion. Young and old people concentrate on the language of fashion. Presented sample images are: The dance theatre “Kontakthof” by Pina Bausch (Germany), 1978 with 65 years old people, 2008 with teenager as amateur dancers, the Asian Project “In the other’s shoes”, Old Ladies Rebellion (France, Great Britain). The picture show will be completed by sociological imaginations and the future opportunities of dressing up. The generations like to express themselves. With powerful colours and up-cycling, the elderly keep the ageing process and death at a distance.