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Haunted Clothing

Re: the above post: I forgot to add that the man I saw (ghost) had no visible legs below the knee area. This didn't seem unusual at the time, nor did it affect his overall height, which was some inches in excess of six feet, as gauged in comparison with a wall unit which he'd stood near, when I saw him.
 
spillage said:
Are the millitary uniforms dressed on manikins?
As I, for some obscure reason, feel dizzy and wierd whenever I walk near or past shop dummies, waxwork figures etc, even when I aren't concious that they're there, (Subconciously or not)!
Don't know why, but I do. I remember when I was at art college once and I felt dizzy whenever I went near a screen, only to find that there was a manikin behind it as an exhibition!
Nothing to do with fairy tales, I know, but it could hold some kind of instinctive answer to people reacting to clothed models. *think scary dolls with "dead eyes"!*

Si thi!

Spillage:

I am pleased to see that I am not the only one who feels uneasy around shop mannequins etc, but I do have to know they are there in order to feel uncomfortable if you know what I mean.
No probs with proper statues though.

Cheers.
 
I was brought up as a Jehovah's Witness, and was warned about buying clothes from charity shops and accepting secondhand clothing due to the posibilty of it being 'demonised'. Bearing in mind that the congregation I was with believed you could get demonised if you breathed the same air as a spiritualist, a lot of the people who were believed to be demonised were discovered later to have mental illnesses.

I'm not sure about haunted clothing. I had a run of bad luck which 'may' have been due to a secondhand pack of tarot cards, but I've not actually heard of anything happening.
 
jeff122 said:
spillage said:
Are the millitary uniforms dressed on manikins?
As I, for some obscure reason, feel dizzy and wierd whenever I walk near or past shop dummies, waxwork figures etc, even when I aren't concious that they're there, (Subconciously or not)!
Don't know why, but I do. I remember when I was at art college once and I felt dizzy whenever I went near a screen, only to find that there was a manikin behind it as an exhibition!
Nothing to do with fairy tales, I know, but it could hold some kind of instinctive answer to people reacting to clothed models. *think scary dolls with "dead eyes"!*

Si thi!

Spillage:

I am pleased to see that I am not the only one who feels uneasy around shop mannequins etc, but I do have to know they are there in order to feel uncomfortable if you know what I mean.
No probs with proper statues though.

Cheers.
I'm reminded of my college days, when I used to work various crappy jobs in order to make ends meet. One of these was as a security guard at a old department store in downtown Tucson (in one of the oldest sections of town, with a reputation of being haunted). I never saw anything which could be called 'ghostly', however, I always felt extremely uneasy when I was working alone at night. In the rear of the store there was a large room that held all of the unused manikins for storage. On several occasions I was certain I heard a muffled conversation going on in there, but upon opening the door and flicking on the light, I would be greeted by hundreds of bald, naked humanoids, their dead, painted eyes staring at me vacantly. After awhile I would make a point to not go anywhere near that section of the store, and busied myself consuming copious amounts of junk food and blasting the Ramones on my boombox. On my final night there, I found myself checking the doors in that corridor and - sure enough - I heard the sounds of people talking coming from the storage room. Unsure as to whether I was hallucinating, experiencing spook activity, or had been trapped in a Twilight Zone episode, I wisely decided to keep on travelin' and not interrupt their reverie.
 
razorblimp said:
I was brought up as a Jehovah's Witness, and was warned about buying clothes from charity shops and accepting secondhand clothing due to the posibilty of it being 'demonised'.

:?: :? Wow. That's crazy! What about sitting on chairs or touching doorknobs? Could you get 'demonised' by that? Or what if someone working in a restaurant kitchen was cooking your food and they were a spiritualist?

I'm not trying to be a smart-ass, but I'm curious - where did they draw the line?
 
I'm aware of the thread, started recently -

http://forum.forteantimes.com/index.php?threads/threads-thread-clothes-maketh-the-man.63670/

but this tale is mentioned above on this thread, Thora Hird and the Haunted Monkey Jacket so I'm giving it a bump.


The Haunted Monkey Jacket; Or, The Unexpected Hazards of Second-Hand Clothing

Tales of haunted houses are, of course, a dime a dozen. Haunted dolls are--if you go by the sale listings on eBay--drearily commonplace. Allegations of haunted items of clothing, on the other hand, are comparatively rare, which is why I was pleased to come across The Case of the Jinxed Jacket. In his 1968 book "Exploring the Psychic World," paranormal researcher Fred Archer discussed how in 1949, the cast of "The Queen Came By," a play set in the Victorian era, unexpectedly wound up playing starring roles in a production of The Weird.

While preparing a "period" wardrobe for the play, a woman's jacket from the 1870s was found in a second-hand clothing shop. It was decided this would be an ideal costume for the star, Thora Hird. It was a bolero-style garment made of black velvet--what was known in Victorian times as a "monkey-jacket." It was in remarkably good condition for its age, suggesting that few people had ever worn it.


http://strangeco.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/the-haunted-monkey-jacket-or-unexpected.html
 
I am lucky enough to live a short tube-train ride away from the biggest 2nd hand clothes market in Europe. It seems to be where all the stuff that hasn't been sold else where in Europe ends up. I have bought approx 60 2nd hand shirts there over the past 10 years, all of them in excellent condition and known brands such as Hugo Boss, Armani, Ralph Lauren etc. If anyone was going to be bothered by clothes ghosts it would be me given the size of my "pre-loved" clothes collection but I remain unhaunted and even my pet cat shows no fear when I bring some garments home.

I find it hard to understand how a garment could host a ghost.
 
I find it hard to understand how a garment could host a ghost.

There are cultures where this belief wouldn't seem far-fetched. As has been mentioned above, in some societies a deceased person's clothes are destroyed or disposed of rather than re-used, and plenty of posters have shared stories of apparently haunted garments that they've come across.

Also, if an inanimate object like a ship or garden can be haunted, why not an item of clothing? It makes as much or as little sense.
 
I am lucky enough to live a short tube-train ride away from the biggest 2nd hand clothes market in Europe. It seems to be where all the stuff that hasn't been sold else where in Europe ends up. I have bought approx 60 2nd hand shirts there over the past 10 years, all of them in excellent condition and known brands such as Hugo Boss, Armani, Ralph Lauren etc. If anyone was going to be bothered by clothes ghosts it would be me given the size of my "pre-loved" clothes collection but I remain unhaunted and even my pet cat shows no fear when I bring some garments home.

I find it hard to understand how a garment could host a ghost.
I worked once with an up and coming young real estate developer who confided in me that his name brand elegant and well-made suits were "dead people's clothes" because he shopped at second hand stores. Never heard of any trouble with them. But indeed if a chair or portrait why not a suit jacket.
 
I worked once with an up and coming young real estate developer who confided in me that his name brand elegant and well-made suits were "dead people's clothes" because he shopped at second hand stores. Never heard of any trouble with them. But indeed if a chair or portrait why not a suit jacket.

Good point, as today I am wearing an Emporio Armani shirt bought at said 2nd hand market I will keep an eye out for (posh) ghosts.

Cost new $245 ... cost in 2nd hand market $0.90 plus you get the added bonus for free of wondering if you are haunted or not
 
Alexei Sayle reckons his signature 'too-small and shiny suit' look comes from buying clothes for his first stand-up comedy gig from a charity shop, possibly Oxfam.

He was in a rush and grabbed the suit that looked most like his size. It was cheap, nasty and too small - perfect for his image.

Now he's better off I bet he has them tailored to look that way.
 
Good point, as today I am wearing an Emporio Armani shirt bought at said 2nd hand market I will keep an eye out for (posh) ghosts.

Cost new $245 ... cost in 2nd hand market $0.90 plus you get the added bonus for free of wondering if you are haunted or not

That's a great bargain! Coming from a famously frugal home town, I can only salute you.

I too buy second hand clothes, why not? They fit in the washing machine. I married Techy in a beautiful apricot-coloured silk outfit bought from the local mental health charity shop and sent them a photo to prove it.
BNWT, unworn, and fitted perfectly. £12.99.
Turned out to be a one-off designer piece priced at £6-700.
 
That's a great bargain! Coming from a famously frugal home town, I can only salute you.

I too buy second hand clothes, why not? They fit in the washing machine. I married Techy in a beautiful apricot-coloured silk outfit bought from the local mental health charity shop and sent them a photo to prove it.
BNWT, unworn, and fitted perfectly. £12.99.
Turned out to be a one-off designer piece priced at £6-700.

Here's an article from Vogue about my favourite 2nd hand market, complete with a little photo gallery if anyone is interested. All those 2nd hand clothes imagine how many ghosts must be in residence once the lights go out.

https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/kiev-shopping-secondhand-bazaar#1
 

I wonder if anyone has tried to track down the name given (or similar). The style of jacket should give an approximate date.
 
I'm surprised that no-one seems to have responded to the story that haunted the seamstress in post #60 (2005). It was a beautifully written post.

I have to admit that sometimes in charity shops I have had a strong sensation from some of the clothes I looked at. I found some amazing cocktail gowns from the late 60s once and felt a strong feeling of someone who had had quite an exciting life. That might just have been my imagination though.
 
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