How to reconnect with a past that is disappearing in the Valaisan Alps? How to bring to light the memory of the women in my village and advocate for the conservation of maternal heritage through our traditional costume?

The cotën (traditional costume) is inherited, lent, and gifted. It is the invisible thread that unites women within a family and a community. It is a collective memory that inhabits all women, one of pride in honoring our traditions and representing our history by reclaiming our identity, which was long marked by class-based contempt.

This edition aims to make the narratives of the past coexist with today’s reappropriations, in order to give voice to women and rewrite our history together. Through the pages of this work, photographic portraits and testimonies from women of Ayent weave a common story, detailing their connections and their relationship with the cotën.