The research project BULK explores fluid and multiple forms of value by examining the second-hand garment system. The departure point is an overlaying of two materials made from shredded clothing or ‘rag’ - shoddy (shredded unworn clothes) and (rag)-paper money (shredded cotton/linen used to make paper pulp).

Through this research I aim to subvert normative practices within the fashion system – such as clothing hauls, or fashion collections, to explore the following:

Highlight an industry of maintenance that is not so visible as part of the fashion system: the by-hand sorting process that happens to each item of unworn clothing for resale from the Global North to the Global South, and then again, (and again, in perhaps multiple exchanges) as the clothes arrive in the Global South and are sorted to into grades of use-value. At this point most clothing will be defined as unsuitable and often becomes waste.

Identify the politics of care in fashion design – opportunities and impacts to people and materials within the unworn clothing system.

Explore practices of material care – experimenting with the creative potential of industrial recycling processes, creating an inventory of the uniqueness of each garment (material agency beyond the mass produced).

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/35592