Textiles have accompanied the embodied self from the beginnings of humanity, throughout the journey of life. Human life without textiles is unimaginable: not only our bodies and environments, but also our memories, thoughts and theories are clothed. Focusing on the everyday textiles often overlooked by force of habit, such as sheets, socks, towels and curtains, this arts-based project traces the textile self in all its expressions, exploring the manifold ways of meaning making through the tacit textile knowledge we carry, quite literally, on our skin. Textile stories, memories, materials and metaphors collected from a wide range of sources, from the domestic environment to philosophical discourse, are brought together in assemblages and objects, made to entice the narrative imagination and open up new ways of thinking through textiles, in and beyond words. Presented as a multi-sensory art installation that is also a hands-on learning resource, archive and space for personal and intellectual narratives to emerge, the practical component of the thesis, Mirabilia Domestica: the textile self re/collected, is modelled on the pre-disciplinary cabinet of wonders of early modernity. The written component considers the concepts of knowledge behind this predecessor of universities, museums and art galleries as it is gaining renewed impact in artistic practices and academic discourse, and links them to the textile investigation. The fluid and transformative nature of textiles not only underpins processes of making, but also informs a research methodology of inquisitive meandering, led by curiosity and subject to serendipity, proposed as more apt than rigorous methods and solid frameworks to capture the imaginative and complex ways we move in and make sense of the world. Through visual and tactile propositions, the thesis challenges the logo-centric bias of academic research as well as the ocularcentricity of contemporary arts, and aims to draw the reader/receiver into a web of possibilities, thus contributing departure lines for future investigations into the richly textured fabric of life. A dedicated website, www. mirabilia-domestica. co. uk, provides a link between text and artwork, and serves as an on-line catalogue of the installation.