New owners for old shirts
T-shirts can be reborn. After accompanying their owners for a few seasons, they may end up with new owners, sometimes thousands of miles away. Ironically, some of them return to the countries where they were originally created, like these shirts from Haiti, as documented by photographer Paolo Woods.
Containers with clothing from the United States find their way to the Croix-des-Bossales market in Port-au-Prince. Some of the goods have been returned after not being sold by the big American chains; others are donated by their previous owners. There are mountains of T-shirts with trivial slogans which most of the people wearing them probably don’t understand.
These T-shirts, referred to as “Pèpè” in Haiti, form a sort of link between north and south. They are produced for the US chains in a textile factory in Haiti and perhaps find their way into the closets of Texans or New Yorkers. After a while and a bit of wearing they make their way back to Haiti, where they’re given a second life.
These photos are collected in the 2013 book “Pèpè” produced by Lausanne’s Musée de l’Elysée and the publishing company Riverboom. (Photos: Paolo Woods/Institute)
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