A STITCH IN TIME
Textile gallery, research provide a glimpse of history and fashion

Sometimes stories of human perseverance can be stitched into something as simple as the fabric of a dress. The factors of everyday life can speak as much about a nation as its politics, science and literature.

Rosa Keller Aucoin, like many people during the Great Depression, learned to make the most of what she had. The Aucoin family had many chickens at their home on Old Jefferson Highway, just outside of Baton Rouge. Having lots of chickens meant having a large number of chicken feed bags as well. Rather than throw away the cloth bags, Aucoin learned to reuse them to make a great deal of clothing and other items for her house, just as many people did with bags from commodities such as salt and rice.

Not the occasional recycling of water bottles and milk jugs of today, Aucoin's creations were the re-use and re-invention of everyday items to suit ongoing household needs. One dress could be made from two 100lb. chicken feed bags. With the days of the Great Depression gone, the daughters of now-deceased Aucoin, Rita Grant and Leah Shaffer, donated their mother's dresses to the LSU Textile and Costume Museum in 1996.

As Aucoin started from scratch for her creations, LSU researcher Jennifer Banning started from scratch to uncover the history of those creations, finding the answers in the folds of pillowcases, dresses, and other items.
"I never found anything documented about this clothing. It's something some people know about, but not much is written on it," says Banning, a Ph.D. student in LSU's School of Human Ecology.

Banning’s research began in 2001 after learning of the Aucoin family donation and focused on a comparison study that examined the design, construction, and fabric type of thirty dresses. Banning and Pam Rabalais, curator of LSU’s Textile and Costume Museum, then began planning an exhibition highlighting the garments analyzed, other household textiles, and the history of commodity bags, collecting additional examples through antique stores, eBay, and other private collectors.

Even though this process of making commodity bags useful was a necessity for some, it was also a commercial venture. A few decades later in the 1950s, commercialization inspired the use of printed fabric to be used for the bags. Pattern companies began to design patterns specifically to be used on commodity bags. The use of commodity bags for clothing continued well into the late 1960s, but had begun to taper off due to the rising costs of cotton. The commodity garments that remain document the history of a valuable practice.

With the support of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Banning and Rabalais were able to use Banning’s research to create an exhibit of commodity bag creations. The collection contains curtains, quilts, furniture covers, pillow cases, and clothing. These items show the innovation of people like Rosa Keller Aucoin and their attempts to make the best of a bad situation faced by a nation during the Great Depression.

The LSU Textile & Costume Museum is open to the public Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and can be reached at 225/578-5992.

ON THE WEB:
LSU School of Human Ecology
LSU Textile and Costume Museum

from Spring 2005