Fabric: Linen navy shirt

Linen shirt

Sourced from the Brotherhood of St Laurence in Sunshine, Victoria. 

The shirt was similar to work shirts that are discarded by many trade workers due to wear. Being a linen 3XL size shirt, the material had better drape and a larger amount of fabrics than a work shirt. 

Brotherhood of St Laurence was one of the organizations that had been contacted by the designer to source tattered materials. This linen shirt was one of the many clothing that was donated by them. When a bag of donated clothing was picked up, many of the clothing was still in wearable condition with minor faults such as small discolourations, or mendable seam breakages.  Some of them were perfectly good clothing.

When Marie Kondo's tv shows inspired many to declutter their house, some alerted this could lead to waste issues unless the feeling of ‘mottainai' is practised (Taylor 2019). 

'Mottainai' is a feeling in Japanese to describe being shameful to waste items.

In fact, the amount of clothing donated to the charities rapidly increased, causing waste disposal issues to these organizations as part of these clothing was not suitable for use (Chain 2019).

At Brotherhood of St Laurence, unwearable garments can be dropped off to be passed on to Melbourne Cleaning Cloths (Planet Ark's Recycling Near You n.d.). 

More about Mottainai

More about Garment recycling in Melbourne

Reference

Chain, B 2019, 'The Marie Kondo effect: Charities beg kind-hearted people to stop dumping belongings into clothes bins as Netflix series donations spike', Daily Mail Australia, viewed 28 March 2019, https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/the-marie-kondo-effect-charities-beg-kind-hearted-people-to-stop-dumping-belongings-into-clothes-bins-as-netflix-series-causes-donations-spike/ar-BBSg0FT.

Planet Ark's Recycling Near You n.d., clothing, viewed 23 October 2019, https://recyclingnearyou.com.au/clothing/BendigoVIC.

Taylor, P 2019, Urgent advisory for Netflix-inspired declutterers, viewed 20 March 2019, https://www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/About-us/Latest-news/2019/01/10/23/21/Urgent-advisory-for-Netflix-inspired-declutterers.