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Description
From 'shameful' utilitarian garments to contemporary, transcultural fashion trend: like wabi-sabi and kintsugi before it, boro has gained worldwide recognition as a quintessential Japanese aesthetic and sustainable design practice. How has this cross-cultural reimagining shaped boro's meaning in art and fashion? And what are we doing when we make, collect, display and wear boro today?
As boro's functional value has decreased in the contemporary context, it has acquired new layers of meaning: from antique object to vintage fashion style, sustainable design practice to contemporary art piece. Reviving Boro investigates this revival using primary materials, including a wealth of unpublished images, oral histories and archival research.
Leren Li conducts a thorough examination of the process of value generation, reviewing personal and museum boro collections, emerging boro brands, and recent boro initiatives undertaken by independent fashion innovators. Investigating boro as a revived cultural phenomenon, this is a critical resource for readers wanting to understand the past, present and future of this traditional Japanese textile.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. What is Boro? – Repair, Circulation, and the Ethics of Mottainai
Patchwork, Quilting Appliqué: Situating Boro within Japan's Craft Genealogy
Speaking of Boro: Words, Meanings, and Culture Translation
Identity Threads: From Kesa to Boro in Japanese's Patchwork Traditions
Sashiko: A Cultural Stitch in Japanese Patchwork
Wisdom in Waste: Mottainai and the Treasured Scraps
2. Threads of Time: Tracing Boro's Origins and Cultural Reinvention
From Tokyo to Aomori: Searching for the Origins
In Search of Boro's Roots: Exploring Aomori's “Missing Heritage”
Disaster, Labour, and Poverty: The Textile Born from Humbleness
Patchwork Kinship: Bodoko and the Construction of Japanese Ethnicity
3. Rags to Recognition: The Curatorial Rewriting of Boro
The “Shameful Rags”: The First Boro Exhibition in Japan
Anonymity as Authorship: Early Boro Exhibits in America during 1990s
Gender, Value, and Voice in Curatorial Narratives
Showcasing Boro as New Fashion
4. Becoming Boro: From Rural Survival to Contemporary Fashion
Vintage Revival: Second-Hand and the Rise of Boro-Style in Japan
Indigo Kinship: How American Denim Shaped Japan's New Boro Aesthetic
Luxury Rags: Boro's Journey into High Fashion Market
Stitching Together: Boro Communities and the Co-Creation of Meaning
Bibliography
Further Resources
Index
Product details
| Published | 01 Oct 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Hardback |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 240 |
| ISBN | 9781350516243 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Visual Arts |
| Illustrations | 81 color illus |
| Dimensions | 246 x 189 mm |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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