The Narrative Guage Sweater is a collection of thoughts about clothing at its relationship to and with its wearers. Having always been fascinated by the performative aspects of identity, I find clothing — as a specific set of aesthetic, cultural, political, economic choices — inherently interesting and potentially potent. Clothing speaks to and for and with and through us. It’s on our skin and moves with us; it is a second skin that camflagues, armours, and advertises. If you listen, it speaks.
What does cuffing these trousers say about me?
How many unwashed wears can 18oz demin sustain before it become gross?
What is the history of cable knit and why does that history appeal to the fisherman in us?
Why do I have a favourite shirt or hoodie or sneakers that feel more like me than anything else in my wardrobe?
Who am I?
Maybe I am simply an accretion of the clothes I wear. Maybe I am the cypher that gives those clothes purpose and meaning. I buy, own, and wear them. They reveal something about this I even as they hide my body is layers on cotton, linen, wool, polyester, rayon, nylon, leather, pleather, hemp, elastine, latex, lyocell, and foam.
More prosaically, I am fantasy and SF writer, PhD. academic, and chronic seeker for the next pair of jeans or boots or socks or glasses (both optical and sun) or sneakers, the next button down flannel, over-shirt, work shirt, sweater, or shawl-collared cardigan. Oh, that T-shirt looks cool! Ditto those loafers in the pebbled kudu.
Hi, I’m Dan, and what follows are my woven histories and welted stories.
Narrative Gauge Sweater 