Trashion: Would You Wear Found Clothing?

By Melissa Massello, November 11, 2009

When most people talk about “clothing finds,” what they’re really talking about are incredible bargains — “steals” and deals they’ve “found” in a shop, at a swap, or online. Chicago-based PR professional and blogger Lauri Apple, however; took this popular phrase to heart quite literally when she launched her blog, Found Clothing.

Since 2006, Apple has been “rescuing” the retail castoffs of the oblivious and forgetful among us, amassing an impressive photo diary and catalog of everything from baseball caps to designer scarves, all of which she’s come across in her travels, then adopted, revived, and placed in new homes.

Recently, we interviewed Apple by phone to get a bit more background on exactly how Found Clothing works and why she started this unique website. Here’s what she had to say:

Where do you find the clothing?
The indoor find is extremely rare. I don’t find stuff inside places, usually that belongs to someone. Most of it is in the trash, or in city garbage cans, or people drop it on the ground and there’s nobody around and people are walking by it. I think mostly people are either drunk, on a phone or texting and they drop something without noticing, or it’s in a bicycle lane or on a curb — maybe from getting in or out of a car or cab.

How do you care for the stuff you find?
If it’s not launderable, like I can just wash it and wear it, then I won’t take it. I have become more discriminating over the years. The obligation to take things just to save them has diminished somewhat. It’s a real effort on my behalf and it does get a little tiring — I still want to recycle [everything I come across], but lately I’ve been thinking that someone who might actually use it themselves will come along and take it instead, so I leave it there. Basically, I haven’t just been taking any old thing that I come across. The things I’m not going to use, I leave and assume that someone else who needs it, because of the economy or whatever, will find it.

Are you making any money from your found clothing?
People are always saying to me that I should turn this into a business, but really, I don’t see how. All the things people would buy are the things that I would want to keep, and the rest of the clothes are stained or a little rougher around the edges. Maybe people would buy something just because it was found, as found art or something, but I haven’t met them yet. Glamour Magazine‘s Little Miss Fortune recently did a poll asking people whether or not they’d wear a piece of trashion (clothing they found on the street), and the reaction was about 50/50. I’m thinking the market for found clothing is really small. I think the main possibility would be partnering with a swap site, but I wouldn’t know what I could offer them, other than advertising. I have a few things in the works with the blog, ways to make it bigger, but I can’t talk about them yet. I just keep what I like, and what I don’t like, I give away to the charity shops.

What are some of your favorite clothing finds?
I have a pair of jeans that I’ve been wearing for years, which fit perfectly and are the item that I’ve used the most of all the items that I’ve found. Other than that, just on sheer aesthetics, I would say the designer stuff — the things I would never be able to buy in the store. Something that’s pricey, like things from Bloomingdales or Brooks Brothers, that are useful and also a bit “hoity-toity.”

So, would YOU wear an an item of clothing or an accessory that you found on the street? Talk amongst yourselves, we’ve given you the topic.

Photo: Melissa Massello. Baseball hat found on the commuter rail tracks in Cambridge, MA, November 10th, 2009. (It was left there.)