What truly is a shirt? Fiber molecules? Instant warmth and comfort? Or perhaps part of a complex system of global trade, agricultural politics, farming traditions, and the detailed labor of a young person's hands on the other side of the world? Can the truth of a shirt really fit into a space as small as your closet?

Changing Clothes is an ongoing project that investigates the politics and ecology of clothes through a series of sculptures, collaborations, and public participations that explore the everday world of producing, wearing, and discarding clothes.

wear / where

One day while folding laundry, I imagined that I was actually folding maps from all the places around the world where my garments were made. I was inspired to make a reproduction of one of my favorite shirts by cutting maps into thin strips and then weaving them together. In today's global economy, the geography of production is quite complicated, connecting diverse landscapes and peoples in ways that are mostly hidden and unacknowledged. This shirt woven of maps invites us to consider these relationships and our place within this convoluted geography.

As a follow-on project, you can make your own miniature map shirts! Click the image below for an easy to follow origami pattern and then use an interesting map for paper. You can even make a mini-clothesline collection like the one below.

Tag Exchange

The tag to the left is an intervention - a way to introduce and cultivate the imagination and awareness that are prerequisites to ecologically and socially conscious shopping habits. I designed them and had them woven here in the United States. There are about 1,000 of them in circulation. I want to honor the best of what clothing can be: something that connects us to the earth and each other in positive, beautiful ways. I believe that our failure to create a production system for clothing that treats the earth and people well is really a failure of the imagination. Perhaps China is too far to go to find out for ourselves, but if we can tell (and re-tell) stories - true stories - about the peoples and places wrapped up in the production of clothing, I believe our clothing will begin to speak to us in new ways, leading to the creation of careful relationships and healthy methods of making.

Here's how it works: You send me one (or more) of your clothes tags and a self-addressed stamped envelope, and I send you one (or more) of these tags in exchange. Then you sew this tag into your garment, as a reminder and statement in support of healthier clothes. As your garment gets passed on to friends, little sisters, or thrift stores, the tag takes on a life of its own and becomes a surprise snippet for future wearers. If you're about to give away a load of clothes, consider sewing these tags into the collar first. The tags can also be sewn onto a sleeve (or anywhere else) like a patch. As I receive tags in exchange for mine, I am making a shirt by stitching them together.

Note: There is a suggested donation of $1.00 per tag requested to cover project costs. You can include your donation in your envelope. If you can't donate but still want to participate, please limit your tag request to five (5) tags. Thanks!

Send your tags to be exchanged and a SASE to:
Lea Redmond
Leafcutter Designs
PO Box 5358
Berkeley, CA 94705

Care Symbol

This larger-than-life clothes tag honors the many people and places involved in the production of clothing today. We wear most of our clothes without any knowledge or experience of the person who raised the sheep, grew the cotton, or stitched the hem. Most clothes tags offer few details. How can we know if a garment was produced in a way that honors the health of workers and local ecologies? How can we make sound buying decisions if the information just isn't available?

The Care Symbol clothes tag was hand-made with great attention to place and materials. The wool is from Meridian Jacobs, a small sheep farm near Vacaville, CA run by Robin Lynde - shepherd, weaver, and teacher. Jacob sheep are a special, spotted breed. The brown wool in the giant tag is from the brown spots on the sheep and the white is from the white spots. I wove this on a little wooden loom made by my weaving teacher's husband forty years ago.

Visit Meridian Jacobs to purchase their wool, attend open farm days, or simply learn more about their wonderful farm. Remarkably there are only two remaining large-scale mills still producing woolen fabric in the United States: Pendleton Woolen Mills and Woolrich. Smaller craft producers like Meridian Jacobs need our support if this important domestic industry is to survive.

No Enemy

Paul Cheatham started up the clothing company No Enemy in Santa Cruz, CA as a way to spread a message of non-violence and to have the medium of that message be equally peaceful. We both seek to cultivate consciousness of clothing - where we buy it, who makes it, and all of the ecological and human concerns along the way. No Enemy clothes are organic cotton, sewn by fair wage labor in CA and dyed with low-impact dyes. Sometimes I join Paul at fairs and do yarn spinning demonstrations on my spinning wheel. I spin organic cotton and discuss the process and issues with passers-by. With this yarn, I am knitting a reproduction of a No Enemy t-shirt. I also made Paul a pair of suspenders out of his leftover clothes tags.

Download a knitting pattern to add the No Enemy logo to your own knitting project.

Mending Gallery

Mending is a beautiful thing and a great way to extend the life of a garment. What if it was typical to compliment each other on our mending jobs? In celebration of the practice of mending, I'm collecting images of your garment mending work and will post the gallery once I have enough submissions.

Please email me an image of your mended holes, tears, and rips, and we'll add it to the growing collection!

Subversive Spinning

One afternoon, I slipped into a mall in Santa Rosa, CA with my spinning wheel and spun yarn in front of Old Navy. Quite a few people stopped to watch and quite a few others walked right by without seeming to notice anything unusual. I didn't say much. I wasn't there to badmouth Old Navy or blame anyone; I was simply making yarn - by hand and out of raw materials - in a place that is all about the consumption of mass-produced clothing.

I'm not sure how many passers-by made the connection between my spinning and the clothes in the window behind me. One person even asked if I was part of the local historical society. I do, however, believe there is an important role for subtle, non-confrontational demonstrations such as this. After about an hour of spinning, the mall security guard came and asked me to leave. When I asked him why, he said, "because this is private property" and "you are making something."

Make a New World

My adventures in shoemaking began when I needed a new pair of shoes but didn't want to support the poor labor conditions under which so many shoes are currently produced. I thought I'd give shoemaking a whirl. I found a how-to book from the 1970s and put it to use with a sewing awl and leather. As a final touch, I carved words into the bottoms of the soles so they leave a trail of text behind me when I walk on the beach or earthen trails.

After each resole, I leave a different phrase in my wake. Where I once carved "Make a new world" in the sand, now I leave tracks that say, "is this the way is this..." Watch the video below to learn more about my shoes and the message I left on Limantour Beach in Point Reyes.

Wool/Sheep Craft Tag

I had a request for a clothes tag that crafters and sheep-raisers could sew into their handmade woolen items. So here it is.

If you are a sheep-raiser that sells wool or yarn to crafters, consider giving these tags away with your products. They would also be fun to sew into garments that are sold at farmer's markets.

$0.75/ea IN STOCK

Flour Sack Clothes

The history of cotton flour sacks is a story of thrift and creative re-use. Up until the 1930s, when paper sacks came into use, people purchased their flour in sewn cotton sacks. The flour producers would print flowers and other patterns on the sacks to encourage customers to buy their brand. Housewives would soak off the paper labels and save the fabric to make clothes (including underwear), curtains, and pillowcases. There were even some with doll or toy patterns printed on them so they could be turned into stuffed playthings after the flour was gone. See the vintage flour sacks below and the flour sack shirt I made at left to get a feel for what was possible.

Video: Textile Conference Talk at SFSU

Watch a 20-minute presentation I gave about the Changing Clothes project. I tell one of my favorite stories about an Indonesian rice boat. I also discuss process, share conceptual considerations and show lots of pictures. The talk was part of a panel discussion titled "Environmental art: Can art make a difference?" at the 2010 Reinvention textile conference, co-sponsored by the Surface Design Association, Studio Art Quilt Associates, and San Francisco State University.

Inspiration & More Resources

Fortunately, there are lots of artists, businesses, and organizations working on the ecological and social issues of clothing. Many of them offer plenty of opportunities to get involved.

Artist Terese Agnew stitched together clothes brand labels into a "Portrait of a Textile Worker" and microRevolt created a Nike Blanket Petition with the help of knitting and crochet hobbyists. In the Brown Dress Project, a woman makes a fashion statement. Artist Michael Swaine wheels a mobile mending cart through San Francisco. Judi Werthein designed the Brinco Sneaker for immigrants crossing the US/Mexico border.

While there are many companies now offering organic and fair labor clothing, I'm especially inspired by Tom's Shoe's model of giving a pair of shoes to a person in need for each pair purchased, and Icebreaker's Baacode that lets you track the origins of their woolen garments back to the specific sheep farm.

Here in CA, the Sustainable Cotton Project brings farmers, manufacturers, and consumers together in pursuit of cleaner cotton, while Textile Exchange is a non-profit working to improve the global industry. The Clean Clothes Campaign supports the empowerment of garment workers and The Organic Consumers Association has a Clothes for a Change Campaign. Maquila Solidarity Network will help you start a "No Sweat" campaign in your community and also supplies news and educational videos. Global Exchange also has a Sweatfree Communities campaign to ensure that our tax dollars support fair labor. The Environmental Justice Foundation's Cotton Campaign focuses on child labor in Uzbekistan and MADE-BY has developed a Blue Button tool as well as Track&Trace which lets you follow a garment's supply chain.