The social life of a denim jacket

This article discusses the social life of a denim jacket as an item of apparel, as a museum object and a personal possession. It highlights its intersections with Cambodian and Australian history and shows how it works as a composition and means of composing personal experience. The discussion is located in a cultural approach to oral history and in museum studies discussion about representations of Australian migration history. It is also inspired by the Global Denim research project. A dialogic approach is used to show the interplay between history and lived experience, and public discourse and personal meaning-making.