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WARDROBE REVOLUTION WEEKEND: VIVIENNE RICHMOND

WARDROBE REVOLUTION WEEKEND: VIVIENNE RICHMOND

August 23, 2022
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Image: printed feed sack TRC 2019.1303. Image courtesy of Textile Research Centre Leiden

Vivienne Richmond is a historian of non-elite textiles, dress and needlework, a collector of ‘chicken linen’ and mid-twentieth-century textiles, and an advocate of visible mending. She was formerly Head of History at Goldsmiths, University of London, and is the author of Clothing the Poor in Nineteenth-Century England (Cambridge University Press, 2013) as well as numerous articles and book chapters. She is the co-editor of Textile History, the Journal of the Pasold Research Fund, and co-editor in chief of the forthcoming (2024) Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of World Textiles.

Vivienne Richmond will join us for our Wardrobe Revolution Weekend, online talk on Saturday 8 October 2022 to talk about her research into feed sack fashion. In her talk she will explore the development and popularity of ‘chicken linen’, the printed textiles in which mid-twentieth-century American manufacturers packaged dry goods, such as flour, fertiliser and chicken feed. Used by impoverished rural women to make clothes and household textiles, feed sacks evolved from plain coarse burlap, to muslin, gingham and percale decorated with patterns by New York designers. In World War II over 3 million Americans owned at least one feed sack garment with feed sack fashion contests a feature of agricultural fairs.


Image: Smithsonian feed sack dress. Image courtesy of Smithsonian

We asked Vivienne Richmond for her advice on creating a sustainable wardrobe? Here is what she said...

"Buy less and buy better - check out the sustainability credentials (human and environmental) of new garments you are buying. If they're not good, or you can't trace them, don't buy. Don't just replace - repair. Mending not only extends the life of the garment, but can embellish, enhance and be a creative and relaxing process. Don't like the style/fit of something you own? Can you take it apart and make it into something else? Buying because you're bored with your wardrobe? Instead of going shopping spend an afternoon reappraising what you already have. Get out all your clothes (I bet you'll find something you forgot you owned) and try different garment combinations. Still need to buy something? Check out pre-owned rather than automatically choosing newly made."


Image: printed feed sack. Image courtesy of Textile Research Centre Leiden

Hear more about Vivienne's research into feed sack fashion 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.
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