The Several Lives of a Collection of Rag Dump Clothing from Normandy (1900–55): From Farm, to Dump, to Poverty Chic

Abstract

This material culture-based text researches the history of a collection of damaged clothing (1900–50s) once worn by farming families in Normandy and Brittany. The clothing was excavated from a textile dump in an abandoned warehouse in Normandy in 2012. This research examines the six life cycle stages of this clothing from original use, to abandonment, resurrection, and upcycling onto the extreme edges of the vintage fashion world. This text then follows the growing use of ragged clothing as design inspiration for both costly couture garments and the cheapest mass high street designs over the last thirty years or more. Carefully destroyed but brand-new and sweet-smelling denim jeans and jackets are now admired by celebrities and young high street fashion consumers around the world as fashionable commodities — worn with little regard to the health dangers faced by workers dealing with sand blasting and bleaches. The research then examines the cultural and social forces behind this interest in destroyed textiles in the world of fashion.

Keywords

• damaged clothing
• upcycling
• class vacationing