WARDROBE REVOLUTION WEEKEND: HANNA ROSE SHELL
Image courtesy of Tim Mitchell
Hanna Rose Shell is a historian, image maker, and the author of Shoddy: From Devil’s Dust to the Renaissance of Rags, about the secret lives of textile waste. Her previous book explores camouflage in all its many manifestations and in relation to the art, science and technologies of photographic surveillance. She is the Faculty Director of the Stan Brakhage Center for the Media Arts and teaches Art Practice and Cinema Studies at the University of Colorado.
Shoddy: From Devil’s Dust to the Renaissance of Rags by Hanna Rose Shell
Starting in the early 1800s, shoddy was the name given to a new material made from reclaimed wool and marked one of the earliest forms of industrial recycling. Old rags and leftover fabric clippings were ground to bits by a machine known as "the devil" and then re-used. Usually undisclosed, shoddy became suit jackets, army blankets, mattress stuffing, and much more. This largely forgotten history inspires present day thinking about sustainable fashions and futures. During the Wardrobe Revolution Weekend online talk on Saturday 8 October 2022, Hanna Rose Shell will talk through the history of shoddy and its potential role in building a more sustainable clothing and textile industry.
We asked Hanna Rose Shell for her advice on creating a sustainable wardrobe? Here is what she said....
"Join what I call “the renaissance of rags.” Don’t throw your clothes away and don’t donate them blindly. Learn about the textile industry – the life cycle of clothes, where do they come from, how do they get made, what are their afterlives. Get inspired to get creative, and find ways to be part of “the renaissance of rags,” making a new statement with old clothes."
Image courtesy of Hanna Rose Shell
Hear more about Hanna's important research that can be used to build a more sustainable textile industry alongside other like-minded textile and clothing pioneers on Saturday 8 October 2022 at our Wardrobe Revolution Weekend. The event will be held on Zoom and will comprise a fast-moving Japanese-style seminar with 20 speakers, including a documentary filmmaker, activists, designers and artists, each of whom approaches the environmental crisis happening in our wardrobes from a different perspective. Book your ticket on our website here: www.selvedge.org.
If you want to learn practical skills to making your clothes last longer, we have organise a series of online workshops exploring techniques and skills to upcycle, reuse and reinvent garments. Find out more about the workshops here: www.selvedge.org.