Our Rags Magazine (2022)

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.

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. The first 25 copies are 350 Euro excl VAT and shipping. Copy 25 – 50 are 450 Euro excl VAT and shipping. Last copies price TBA

The project was supported by Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam and the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds.

Published by Warehouse | A Place for Clothes in Context.