Torn

Gus Casely-Hayford unpicks the hidden histories behind what we wear by exploring ten key moments in fashion spanning the globe and five centuries. From the start of the global trade in cotton, to the accidental invention of artificial dyes, to Nike Air Jordans, Casely-Hayford reveals the historical weight we carry through our clothes and the statements we make just by getting dressed in the morning.

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Episodes

Air Jordans

It's 1985. Nike is hoping to finally get a foot into the world of basketball. They're gearing up for a new release of basketball boots that 21-year-old rookie Michael Jordan wears during a pre-season match for the Chicago Bulls. The National Basketball Association then tries to ban the trainers on the basis that they break the league’s rule stipulating that players must wear shoes that are either 51% black or 51% white. In the tenth episode of Torn, Gus Casely-Hayford tells the story of how Nike...

Aug 30, 2022•15 min

Ray-Ban

In 1920, during a record-breaking test flight in a single-engine fighter plane, things almost went fatally wrong for the pilot Major Rudolph 'Shorty' Schroeder. He lost consciousness but came round just in time to land at McCook Airport in Ohio State. When his colleague Lieutenant John MacReady pulled him out of the cockpit, he was shocked to see that Major Schroeder’s eyeballs had frozen. It was the catalyst that led Lieutenant MacReady to embark on a mission to help design protective eyewear f...

Aug 29, 2022•15 min

Miniskirt

It's 1965 and London is about to become the capital of cool. Designer Mary Quant is watching the fashionable girls of Chelsea go by from the window of her shop, Bazaar. Their hemlines seem to be getting shorter and shorter. Inspired, Mary gets to work and what she comes up with many will find deeply shocking. It’s the miniskirt. In episode eight of Torn, Gus Casely-Hayford finds that media, society and feminists can never agree on whether the miniskirt is a good thing. Fashion historian Valerie ...

Aug 29, 2022•16 min

Fisherman Sweater

Fisherman sweaters have been part of fishing communities around the world for centuries. They're knitted with wool, often with unique and intricate designs, and can take more than a hundred hours to make. In episode seven of Torn, Gus Casely-Hayford sets out to discover if it's possible for traditional clothing to live on in a world where machines manufacture clothing at record speeds and record low prices. The story begins in the early 1900s off the Isle of Lewis in the Scottish Hebrides with t...

Aug 29, 2022•14 min

Readymade Suit

It's 1848 and a London-based company is changing the way that clothes are made and sold. E Moses and Son operate out of striking buildings across the capital. Men from all points of the compass are converging on the store with one thing in mind. They want a suit. In episode six of Torn, Gus Casely-Hayford finds that quick returns, division of labour, economies of scale and thoughtful innovative investment in advertising are among what will shape the history and present of low cost fashion. While...

Aug 29, 2022•14 min

Viscose Rayon

It's 1924 and the young Russian graduate Alexis Sommaripa, like so many migrants to the United States in the period, is looking for something new. He takes a job with a company that’s been in the viscose rayon business for about five years but wants to figure out how to sell it. He finds out that women want it to be less shiny and more soft. In episode five of Torn, Gus Casely-Hayford follows the astronomical rise of Sommaripa - from fleeing the Bolsheviks during Russia’s revolution to becoming ...

Aug 22, 2022•14 min

Mauve Mania

It’s 1856 in London, and 18-year-old William Perkin is in the search for a cure to malaria when he stumbles upon something else. At the bottom of his test tube he sees a reddish lump. He dips cloth into it and discovers a purple dye. He becomes the first person to successfully market synthetic dyes. Gus Casely-Hayford tells the story of the craze that follows, nicknamed “mauve mania”. It starts with a purple dress worn by Queen Victoria and filters down to the masses who, until this point, did n...

Aug 22, 2022•14 min

Wax Print

The story of wax print fabric begins not in Africa where the fabric is adored today, but on the island of Java in Indonesia. That’s because, in the 18th century, a Dutch entrepreneur Pieter Fentener van Vlissingen received a curious piece of cloth from his uncle who lived on Java. It had been dyed by a Javanese artisan using a nibbed bamboo stick to create imperfect lines and dots that are set to the fabric with beeswax. Pieter sets about mechanising the technique and finds buyers in West and Ce...

Aug 22, 2022•14 min

Indian chintz dress

It's 1786 in Alexandria, Virginia. An argument breaks out at the market between a black woman enslaved on George Washington’s plantation and a white woman who believes she has stolen her dress made of fine Indian chintz fabric. What the encounter reveals is a complex pattern of hierarchy within fashion and stylistic expression in which black Americans have struggled to gain recognition for centuries. In the second episode of Torn, Gus-Casely-Hayford explores letters and extracts from the diaries...

Aug 22, 2022•15 min

Calico cotton

Gus Casely-Hayford tells the story of how calico cotton first grown in India gave rise to the global trade of a fabric that is both contentious and revolutionary. It’s 1719 and the vitriolic words of weaver-turned-activist Claudius Rey penned in his book condemning the “evil” import of cheap calico cotton from British-ruled India help pour fuel on the fire of civil unrest. The British parliament responds by introducing various amendments to the Calico Act aimed at protecting owners and workers i...

Aug 22, 2022•15 min

Introducing Torn

Gus Casely-Hayford unpicks the hidden histories behind what we wear by exploring 10 key moments in fashion spanning the globe and five centuries. From the start of the global trade in cotton, to the accidental invention of artificial dyes to Nike Air Jordans, Casely-Hayford reveals the historical weight we carry through our clothes and the statements we make just by getting dressed in the morning. A Novel production for BBC Radio 4.

Aug 15, 2022•3 min

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