A Pair of Boro Tattsuke: Re-Purposed and Tattered Work Trousers

early twentieth century
approximate size as shown: 32" x 28", 81.5 cm x 71

This is a pair of traditional style trousers called tattsuke; this type of pants were worn in the city as well as the country and they were worn for work.

The cloth is a nice striped cotton, rather lightweight and with an overall grey tone.  By looking carefully at this cloth, it appears that it was once a kimono that had been deconstructed and re-made into a pair of tattsuke.

Its appeal is in its many areas of eccentrically stitched patches which are beautifully and generously placed on both sides of this pair of trousers: the patches are large. This pair of tattsuke is shown inside-out in order to highlight the good amount of patched repair to the surface of this garment.

The patches are applied by all types of sashiko stitching which give these trousers a good deal of texture and visual interest.  This details of these work trousers are amply illustrated in the accompanying photographs.

Pay attention to the areas of loss to the garment, most of which are shown on the detail photos here.

A really lovely pair of old, boro tattsuke.