Imagine what a fashion magazine would look like in 400 years. In a world with no natural resources left, transformation and recycling are the only way forward.
Our Rags Magazine is a collaborative project by Aimée Zito Lema and Elisa van Joolen, that investigates transformative processes, proposing new forms of collective production aimed at the reuse of discarded clothing and textiles. The project and resulting magazine question consumer behaviour and its relationship to the world in which we live. Further expanding the potential of recycled material, Our Rags Magazine is a magazine where the pages not only show clothing, but actually are clothing.
The project started in 2019 with a workshop in which children were invited to imagine new ways of creating garments and new ways of dressing. The workshop revolved around dissecting discarded pieces of clothing brought in by the participating children. Subsequently, all garments were cut into small pieces and recycled into a new material: paper. A Dutch windmill in Loenen (Netherlands) which still masters the age-old technique of transforming old rags in cotton-based paper transformed the shredded garments into coarse and tactile paper sheets that form the material base of Our Rags Magazine. Returned to the workshop participants, the kids collectively made highly imaginative garments from the rags-to-paper material.
Our Rags Magazine pushes the possibilities of recycled material even further. By manufacturing a fashion publication that is printed on this very material—creating a magazine of which the pages don’t merely show the garments, but are the garments—this project shows the creative potential recycling garments and textile can offer.
Designed by Elisabeth Klement, the magazine contains contributions by photographer Janneke van der Hagen and writers Maria Barnas and Persis Bekkering.
Limited edition of 68 copies. Each copy is unique, handmade, signed and sealed. Available at the launch and via the Warehouse webshop.
The project was supported by Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, and the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds. Publisher: Warehouse / A Place for Clothes in Context.
About Warehouse:
Warehouse is an Amsterdam-based fashion platform that aims to create an open, engaging and inclusive environment that facilitates critical dialogue and the creation of a discourse that goes beyond treating fashion as a commodity.
About Aimée Zito Lema:
Visual artist Aimée Zito Lema (Netherlands/Argentina, 1982) engages in her practice with questions around social memory and the body as an agent of resistance. Zito Lema was artist in residence at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam (2015/16). She lives and works in Amsterdam.
About Elisa van Joolen:
Amsterdam-based Elisa van Joolen’s (Italy/Netherlands, 1983) approach to clothing design is characterised by strategies of intervention and reconfiguration. Elisa’s projects often reflect specific social contexts and emphasise collaboration and participation. Van Joolen was artist in resident at the Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (2019/20).
For additional information, images and requests, please contact Jan Schoon via mail [at] janschoon.nl.
