Boro patchwork denim made from Levi’s 502. 

Made with scrap material using Japanese Boro technique.

Most often, Boro is truly utilitarian. This pair of jeans shows appreciation for different textiles and there ability to be recycled. These jeans show what it means to be scrappy and resourceful. Boro is a process that extends the life of fabrics and clothing. It can accentuate the life of clothing. In this case it’s less utilitarian and more contemporary. Traditional Japanese Boro was used due to cotton and other fabrics being very uncommon in the nineteenth and early twentieth-century rural Japanese. From my understanding, families saved there used fabrics because they needed to. They didn’t save it because the wanted to, and this technique was seen as something the poor or less fortunate would do. Boro literally translates to “tattered”. Over time families would stitch fabrics onto parts that ran thin on there kimono’s (robes) or blankets. These textiles would be passed down through generations. They were covered in indigo scraps, what is beautiful to us was at one time shameful to these Japanese. As they recovered after the end of World War II, some thought the boro textiles reminded the Japanese of their impoverished rural past. These pair of jeans was made with excess amounts of scrap fabrics, representing the fact that textiles are often thrown away due to a simple stain, rip or hole. Now we have the complete opposite problem.