> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.bibliomaniac.com.au/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Best Dressed - URL: https://www.bibliomaniac.com.au/best-dressed/ - Published: 2025-11-04T10:53:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-13T23:58:27.000Z - Author: Carly-Jay Metcalfe ### On fashioning selfhood in chronic illness If you’ve been following along, you might remember that in my first Substack I wrote about the maelstrom - [no, the full-blown clusterfuq](https://open.substack.com/pub/carlyjaymetcalfe/p/my-year-of-rest-and-relaxation?r=1hyxoz&utm%5Fcampaign=post&utm%5Fmedium=web) \- that has been 2024 and 2025\. My aim for the year was disarmingly simple: to survive. And if I could do that, I wanted to see one of my essays find its way into *Griffith Review* which it did. My essay, [‘Standard Issue: Notes on a Hospital Gown’](https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/standard-issue/?ref=bibliomaniac.com.au), is in issue 190. The theme, *Best Dressed*, immediately conjured the pale geometry of hospital gowns and the quiet wreckage of illness - the residue of living in a sick body, the garments I turned to once I stopped disguising the fretwork of scars across my chest and throat, then back to the gown that had always confined me, draped in both remembrance and restraint. As fabulous trouser-suit champion editor Carody Culver writes in her introduction: ‘This edition of Griffith Review is about much more than what we wear – just as what we wear is about much more than stitching and cloth, or about those seemingly mundane factors – weather, laundry, mood – that shape our daily outfit choices.’ Special thanks to super-editors Amber Gwynne and Darby Jones. It’s the editors who truly make writing magical. Here’s the link for the[ 90th edition of Griffith Review.](https://www.griffithreview.com/editions/best-dressed/?ref=bibliomaniac.com.au) In the meantime, enjoy this carelessly curated visual feast of gowns, drapery and other medical paraphernalia. ![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!5iHV!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F56b9c0ac-d4cf-45aa-9805-5aae15460c84_2897x2876.heic) ![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!omMg!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3ee5632c-56fe-4dd7-a3ce-32a4e596d8cc_1259x900.heic) ****Alan - one of my favourite nurses in ICU 1998 for obvious reasons.** ![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!TDHB!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4ff3295c-ad39-4200-88c0-267c7c4b5051_3264x2448.heic) ****I’m somewhere under the sterile drapery.** ![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!HHZf!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8be36533-a7ac-4a4a-9f1d-577ae4f26a91_1440x1440.heic) ****In ICU post-transplant, 1998.** ![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!nP1b!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe05c0840-45b3-45e7-b0a1-3c0354079052_3024x4032.heic) ****My sister will see you now …** ![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!HJeN!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff75351f3-38a6-4dd8-b8f3-52dcab3026cb_3024x4032.heic) ****The radiologist got a PICC line in, which was huge because the other option was a CV line in my jugular and well … fuck that. I proceeded to bleed all over the floor as I was walking out of the hospital so I had to go back to have a Vitamin K shot so I would congeal/clot.** ![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!b9oF!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F265f4156-e6a3-4385-a112-59b2866a0f51_3024x4032.heic) ****In Emergency waiting to be admitted.** ![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!4SuG!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F49ebd0f1-0dde-4791-8625-d11607a00071_1020x662.heic) ****In ICU post-transplant with Mum and Sharon 💜 They’re smiling at my rosy colour because they were used to me looking cyanotic (blue).** ![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!4VLM!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F26425681-c867-4550-879e-11e20fd271c1_3024x4032.heic) ****In ICU 2024 after getting the spicy cough.** ![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ep1E!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4ebe61fb-a8b8-4a3b-a88f-43b8b6f2f09e_1170x873.heic) ****My sister is an absolute queen. This was during the Cunt Cancer Coma of 2007.** ![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!R4vF!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F097a7508-e93b-428a-87fd-61c7b25775bf_828x826.heic) ****Room service? Fuck to the yes!** ![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!pK6g!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe0ec9884-7310-451d-b7fb-055fdabdf123_2268x4032.heic) ****I like being self-sufficient.** 5 Likes