• 1980s

    1980s> It all began in Sweden, with inherited dresses and a growing fascination with secondhand garments and how clothes can shape how we feel and who we can become through play.

  • the map dress

    2007> Travelling across continents on train journeys on the Trans-Mongolian and trains throughout Europe and Asia. The Map Dress, found in Hong Kong in 2007, became a symbol of this way of being on the way somewhere else.

  • The dreamandawake project was born and grew through collaborations with photographers and friends that through photo and video gave the collected dresses new life.

  • 2008> Setting up a small studio in Paris. Series after series of photos were made in collaboration with some fabulous photographers and friends who shared an interest to play with fashion.

  • The photo book ”DNA01” was released (Dream&Awake, 2008, Hong Kong).

  • 2009> Magazine collaborations and new projects. Pushing for more old clothes in media. Some of the first photographic exhibitions were organised, and the first workshops are made.

  • 2010> Organising installations and workshops where people can come and enagage through making.

  • Using dresses as inspiration for other collaborations. More workshops and installations under different names, Fast Forward Rewind- Lab (Sweden), 180/upsidedowncycle (Mozambique, Singapore), The Universe of SHE (Hong Kong) and The Life of a Dress (Mozambique, Mexico).

  • 2018> Finalising the PhD thesis Redesigning Together: Relearning Roles and the Value of Materials in the Overproduction of Fashion. The book is describing in more words the potential with old materials in a community.

  • 2021> Not just a Number. Organising, photographing and labelling more dresses that have been curing over time.

  • 2024> The book "Me, myself & I" is released in collaboration with photographer Daniele Ratti (Italy) and dress #368│Cala . Exhibition and released in Milan, 2024.

  • 2026> The Dress Archive is on its way to being online again with the hope you will also enjoy some of these dresses as much as I have over the years. Amanda / dreamandawake

Almost every dress in the archive has been found while searching through piles of discarded fashion at car boot sales, charity shops, flea markets around the world. 

The collection continues today, though at a slower pace.

The collection continues today, though at a slower pace.