The Joy of Old Clothes

A recent article in the NYT opens with an anecdote about an artist who ripped up her closet to create a rug — the act was cathartic and intended to embrace the concept of no-waste. I wondered a bit of the excessiveness of reducing so many functional items to a rug that would, by dint of more aggressive use, have a shorter lifespan. Nevertheless, the act itself reveals what the author identifies as “the bond between owner and object — a force that compels us to keep rather than discard — and the isolation, boredom and abstention from shopping prompted by the pandemic.”

Author Lou Stoppard goes on to write, “Instead, we have been forced to look closer at what we already own, rather than what we might. We have become anthropologists in our own closets, finding comfort, security, relief, meaning and, on occasion, answers. Clothes are so often about that odd intersection between our fantasies and our insecurities: who we want to be publicly. When image and pretense are removed, they become about our inner worlds.”

Click through to read the entire article. And those of you interested in engaging in a deeper dialogue about clothing, remaking, and re-imagining please hang tight and look for news from our partners at Southern California Fibershed, who will be launching a year of local clothing project early 2021.