Textile Museum Puts Clothing in Religious Context

Washington Post
February 11, 2010

WASHINGTON D.C. - The Textile Museum puts disposable clothing into perspective with "Second Lives: The Age-Old Art of Recycling Textiles," offering a look at cultures that valued their fabrics so highly that they would repurpose them until the cloth became too threadbare to use. Many of the items on display have a religious context, including an 18th-century kesa - or Buddhist clergyman's robe - from Japan. Although Buddhism involves an ascetic lifestyle, the temples in Japan were warehouses for lush, costly textiles donated by followers. Cutting the pieces into fragments was supposed to negate the value of the fabric, allowing the priests to create patchwork robes. And for the kesa on display, the recycling didn't stop there: The fabric is lined with the gilt pages from a guide to attaining enlightenment, a practice thought to bring luck to the wearer. [link]