Shoddy

Book excerpt: “A remarkable story that moves from nineteenth-century England to today’s global ecological concerns around fast fashion.” —Times Literary Supplement Starting in the early 1800s, shoddy was the name given to a new material made from reclaimed wool, and to one of the earliest forms of industrial recycling. Old rags and leftover fabric clippings were ground to bits by a machine known as “the devil” and then reused. Usually undisclosed, shoddy—also known as reworked wool—became suit jackets, army blankets, mattress stuffing, and much more. Shoddy is the afterlife of rags. And Shoddy, the book, reveals hidden worlds of textile intrigue. Hanna Rose Shell takes us on a journey from Haiti to the “shoddy towns” of West Yorkshire in England, to the United States, back in time to the British cholera epidemics and the American Civil War, and into agricultural fields, textile labs, and rag-shredding factories. The narrative is both literary and historical, drawing on an extraordinary range of sources from court cases to military uniforms, mattress labels to medical textbooks, political cartoons to high art, and bringing richly drawn characters and unexpected objects to life. Along the way, shoddy becomes equally an evocative object and a portal into another world. Shell exposes an interwoven tale of industrial espionage, political infighting, scientific inquiry, ethnic prejudices, and war profiteering, and shows how, over the past century, the shredding “devil” has moved from wool to synthetics such as nylon stockings and Kevlar. The use of the term “virgin” wool emerged as an effort by the wool industry to counter shoddy’s appeal: to make shoddy seem . . . well, shoddy. Over time, the word would become a synonym for “inferior” and describe a host of personal, ethical, commercial, and societal failings. And yet, there was always, within shoddy, the alluring concept of regeneration—of what we today think of as conscious clothing, eco-fashion, or sustainable textiles. “In a brilliantly quixotic, scholarly rich, fabulously illustrated trek, Shell guides readers through the history of the reprocessing of used clothing and textiles, reflecting on human ornament, fears of contagion (think of the associations of ‘shoddy’ versus ‘virgin’ wool), and the evolution of a vast industry.” —Harvard Magazine “The fascinating story of how a respectable textile product became synonymous with all things inferior . . . . a fun ride.” —Washington Independent Review of Books