STÜSSY BOUCHEROUITE T-SHIRT RUGS

Stüssy’s home base has been situated on Daimler Street in Irvine, California, since the 1980s. Over the years, multitudes of imperfect graphic and pigment dyed tees began to reside in the warehouses. A handful of t-shirts become ripped through the manufacturing process, stained, or marked with some other error, leaving them unable to be sold. An accumulation like this for decades creates a mass of passive fabric. This project tries to resolve this stagnancy, working through manufacturer imperfections and material stand-stills, circulating an ecosystem of fabric.

T-shirts were first sourced from Stussy’s warehouses in Irvine, California. Roughly 300 kilograms of graphic and pigment-dyed tees from seasons past are gathered in preparation for weaving. To make ready for rug- weaving, t-shirts are cut vertically into strips no longer than a couple of inches in width. This becomes the base material for weavers to begin rug construction.

Situated at the top of the main street that runs through the heart of the town is Ain Leuh Women’s Co-op, home to the Women’s Weaving Cooperative since its inception in 1977. The cooperative has about twenty active weavers and for many, the craft is the primary source of income for their families.