Dressing a Demanding Body to Fit In: Clean and Decent with Ostomy or Chronic Skin Disease

Abstract

This article discusses what kind of strategies people with a stoma or various chronic skin conditions, such as psoriasis or atopic dermatitis, use to find clothes that fit and enable them to fit in. Based on qualitative interviews in Norway, we study how they manage to dress with a demanding body, a poor market and limited economic resources. This includes describing how purchases take place, which clothes fit, how much clothing is needed, and which laundry practices are used. Their main strategy was to reduce the requirements for their own appearance rather than to cleanliness and body odours. If they were unable to appear appropriately dressed, as a minimum odourless and stain free, they reduced their participation in social life.