Free the Vent

Free The Vent: An Observational Study

Free the Vent is an observational study of how tailored jackets and coats with back vents are worn on the body. Commencing in 2025, the project focuses on a specific, often-overlooked element of the archetypal jacket: the vent and its temporary closure held in place through basting stitches.

Traditionally, vents are secured with basting stitches during manufacture to maintain shape and structure in transit and storage. These stitches are intended to be removed by the wearer before the garment is worn. Through systematic photographic documentation across Melbourne’s CBD and inner-city suburbs as part of my regular public transport journey, this project records instances where these temporary stitches remain intact on jackets in everyday use, suggesting a common disregard for—or lack of awareness of—the temporary nature of the basting stitch and its purpose.

By examining this small but telling detail, Free the Vent investigates broader questions around fashion literacy, the shifting expectations placed on consumers, and the erosion of tacit knowledge about how garments are meant to function. The project uses the “un-freed” vent as a lens to consider changing relationships between design, production, and wear, and to reflect on what is lost when technical and material knowledges are outsourced or obscured within contemporary fashion systems.