FoundClothing

Kentucky Tee

8/1/09, mid-afternoon
N. Clark, south of Addison -- Wrigleyville, Chicago, IL

Lovely shade of green, but the saying is not so tasteful: "Gettin' Lucky in Kentucky." The mark on the front is a bleached-out spot. I found it draped over a muni garbage can, as I have so many other garments lately.

Vivienne Tam Dress

7/27/09, around 6:30 a.m.
N. Clark and W. Diversey, Lakeview, Chicago, IL

Found this in the same muni trash can as the Teal Gap sweater. Vivienne Tam has runway shows featuring stylish outfits, and this dress feels cheap to me and looks a bit trashy, so maybe it's counterfeit. Or maybe Vivienne Tam had a bad season during which she was exploring the Frederick's of Hollywood style.

FC on MyZeroWaste.com

Nice post. Based in Glouchestershire, UK, MyZeroWaste.com offers all kinds of useful information about reusing, reducing, and recycling.

Prospirit Yoga Shirt

7/27/09, 2 p.m.
N. Clark, under the El, in Wrigleyville, Chicago, IL

This was draped over a railing. I don't get the design at all -- the front part is so open that it's super-flappy. But I'm not a yoga person, so perhaps there's a reason for this and I just don't know about it.

Teal Gap Sweater

7/27/09, 7 a.m.
W. Diversey and N. Clark, Lakeview, Chicago, IL

Found this in a municipal garbage can along with a bunch of other clothes (some of which is forthcoming, and some of which I left behind). Cold-washed this in the sink, and now it is just fine. No fuzzballs, even.

Chick Lit Library

1/2/09, 4 p.m. or so
Lincoln Park West, between Diversey and Belmont, Lakeview, Chicago, IL

Do you own any of these books? I hear "The Dominant Blonde" was actually written by Hilary Clinton.

Ecofiend

The other day I biked down to the Co-Prosperity Sphere in Bridgeport to check out the arts and met the fellows from Ecofiend, a collaborative project that, among other things, lists Chicago-based green things. Check them out.

Run, Blago, Run t-shirt

This weekend, the space at 1925 N. Milwaukee serves as the setting for Run, Blago, Run -- an art show organized by the Chicago artist CRO and featuring works by Blago-inspired artists, myself included. The other day, I stopped by the space to drop off my work and gave CRO a t-shirt in exchange for this one, which features his amazing Blago stencil. It's not a strictly "found" shirt, but it was free, so that's close enough in this instance (pretty cool shirt/deserves a post).

FoundClothing on Glamour.com

Glamour.com's Little Miss Fortune blog posted about FoundClothing earlier this week. The piece is titled "Savvy or Stupid: How Do We Feel About Fashion?" and there's a poll question you can answer. So far, 25% of respondents are all for trashion-finding; 50% are for it if nobody's around to watch them (and they would never admit to having found the clothes); and 25% are against.

Brandless Black Hat

Late June 2009, late evening
W. Fullerton and N. Halsted, Chicago, IL

This hat could use a little maintenance -- it's a bit worn in places, and fuzz-bally in others. No brand name on the tag.

FoundClothing on EcoSalon

Amy DuFault at Ecosalon, a website that gives you "fresh eco tips, news and fashion without all the fuss," recently interviewed me about this clothes-finding thing. Ecosalon has a really nice Twitter feed as well.

MIT's Trash Track Project

Seen on Planetsave: Trash Track, a project of MIT's SENSEable City lab, tracks different kinds of waste generated in NYC and Seattle using electronic smart tags. The goal is to monitor trash-making patterns and draw attention to deficiencies in the waste disposal system. The project involves volunteers who tag their trash. Would you volunteer for such a project?

Paul's Found Sandal

6/14/09
Somewhere in NYC

Found by Paul F., a former classmate at the Dozo. Nice sandal.

Buffalo Exchange Dumpster Duds

3/2/08, daytime
N. Broadway, Lakeview, Chicago, IL

For some reason I never posted this pic of discarded unwanteds left on the Buffalo Exchange dumpster. I didn't take any of this stuff, because it was all matronly; not surprised the trendy BE didn't take it, either.

Francois Girbaud Jeans

3/2/08, daytime
Can't remember, Chicago, IL

For some reason I never posted this pic, either. Well, now I have.

Green Scarf

7/12/09, around 5pm
N. Ashland and Chicago, Chicago, IL

This was draped over the side of a municipal garbage can. A little odd for July, but this has been a chilly summer so who knows ...

Blue Gap Men's Shirt

07/05/09, around 1 p.m.
W. Diversey, west of Ashland, Chicago, IL

Found this shirt rolled up and stuck in a chain-link fence. Second men's shirt in a row!

Ben Sherman Men's Shirt

Late June 2009, around 9 a.m.
Corner of Diversey and N. Orchard, Lakeview, Chicago, IL, USA

Found this folded over a bicycle ramp. It's a nice shirt -- and not gray and shiny as it appears in this photo, but white with black stripes. Ben Sherman is a quality brand, so I don't know why you would just lose a shirt like this unless you were totes blotto (not to be confused with "totes Bluto," a condition that has only affected that character from the Popeye cartoon).

Flying Tomato Sweater

6/14/09, in the afternoon
Addison and Halsted, Lakeview, Chicago, IL

This sweater was dusty and covered with little pieces of street debris when I found it lying by the curbside. It was also slightly flattened, so I'm guessing that somebody ran over it while parking or un-parking. Just laundered it and now it looks much better. There's a tiny snag near the collar in the back -- an easy repair job.

The brand is Flying Tomato. If you visit Buckle.com, you can find some of their wares.

Crocheted Shawl

May 2009, around 9 am
N. Halsted and Fullerton, Chicago, IL

OK, so here's something. I found this shawl one recent morning on the way to work. It was wet from the rain, and wound around a parking meter. 

Men's Wear

Last night I saw a black, size XXL t-shirt on S. Halsted, near UIC; and a white baseball cap with a corporate logo on it, on a stoop in Pilsen. Didn't have my camera with me, and didn't take these items.

My Finding Technique Is Stoppable

Just not finding any keepable clothing lately -- my guess is that current economic trends are leading people to either keep their clothes or donate it, instead of throwing it away in the trash. If this is the case, then fine with me.

Recycling News Highlights

• This clothing swap at New York University in NYC sounds like fun -- especially with the incorporation of Capri Sun pouches into the remake-recycled-clothes-athon component. Sounds kind of like the event that took place here in Chicago last March. The store referred to in the article, AuH2O, is here, and also in NYC's East Village (three-dimensional version). 

• Meanwhile, up the road in Pittsfield, MA, the Center for Environmental Technology collected almost a ton of clothing in just four hours during a recent clothing drive. Goodwill co-hosts this annual event; the donations end up going to them, or converted into rags and car interiors.
  

• Earth Day brought coverage of Nike's shoe recycling program, Reuse-a-Shoe. Go to the website and learn how your beat up shoes get turned into "Nike Grind." It's not a coffee substitute.

Rogers Park Cheetos

A resident of the Chicago neighborhood of Rogers Park who goes by the name "Estes Dude" has been documenting the Cheetos bags that he finds left in the street.

An Interview with Brian Ulrich

Over at Chicagoist, where I write about art (and, occasionally, other things), you can read this interview I did last week with Chicago photographer and professor Brian Ulrich, who just won a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship for his work. Ulrich photography focuses on consumption -- from big-box stores to thrift stores. I asked Ulrich if he ever photographed trash, landfills -- discarded objects. His response:

BU: In the beginning, I photographed that stuff. But the problem with a trash dump or trash bag is that it's so out of sight, out of mind. We've kind of appeased our guilt of the thing as soon as we throw it in the can, or dump it in the pile with everyone else's trash. But if it still has a connection to us -- like in the thrift stores, or some old pair of jeans -- they still have some sort of personality that relates back to us and our nostalgia. The trick is to make pictures that don't exist necessarily just in the periphery of ourselves, but kind of implicate and become personalized by their recognizability to our own experience.