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 (NL) 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 at the Rijksakademie voor Beeldende Kunsten.
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.
Developed in close collaboration with graphic designer Elisabeth Klement. Limited edition of 68 copies. Each copy is unique, handmade, signed and sealed.
The second issue will be developed in collaboration with MFA Fashion Design and Society Parsons NY (October 2023).
Type: softcover
Dimensions: various dimensions. appr. per copy 32 x 37 x 0,8 cm portrait
Pages: 16
Paper made from 48 pieces of used garments, produced at Middelste Molen
Art Direction: Aimée Zito Lema, Elisa van Joolen
Research assistant: Alice Alloggio, César Rogers, Pernille Knudsgaard, Alessandra Varisco
Workshop participants: Amare, Chaja, Daantje, Hasse, Kaya, Kaye, Malou, Mia, Pieke, Rivka, Romy, Rosalie, Samuel, Sofia, Veerle,Yuelin
Workshop assistance: Anouk Beckers, Andrea Chehade
Text: Maria Barnas, Press Bekkering
Photography: Janneke van der Hagen
Styling: Lidewij Merkx
Graphic design: Elisabeth Klement
Release date: Spring 2022
Binding: sewn
Edition: 68
Color: full color
Printer: Rijksakademie voor Beeldende Kunsten with Pieter Verweij
Language: English
Made possible by: Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam and the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds
Publisher: Warehouse
BUNGEE EVENT:
OUR RAGS MAGAZINE: A TALK BY ARTISTS AIMÉE ZITO LEMA & ELISA VAN JOOLEN
