Wearing Dead Persons' Clothing / Shoes

[tilly50]

Does anyone know of any ul's about wearing the clothing of someone who has died?
Recently a guest at our home was wearing a fairisle sweater, I commented on it as it was very colourful and the pattern very detailed. His mother immediately commented that the sweater was one that had belonged to a recently deceased friend of hers.Quite apart from the embarrasment that this caused (the fellow is in his mid 40's and the dead man was a friend of his mothers!), I felt a shudder of revulsion.
When my father died my mother would wear one of his old jackets around the house as a form of comfort as it made her feel close to him, but somehow wearing something of a dead person gives me a lot of bad feelings, does the deceased mind, do you assume something of the deceased (ideas about contagious diseases come to mind here also), are you haunted or possessed by the dead, for good or bad?

 

[zoltan_g]

I wouldn't have thought it would cause any problems aside from the obvious revulsion/taboo of wearing a dead person's clothing.

They're just material items really, why would the dead be bothered at all who's using them now?

 

[OneWingedBird]

my grandfather on my stepfather's side of the family had a seemingly endless supply of shirts and 'tank top' jumpers that for years after he passed away, my grandmother would send to my stepfather periodically, for him to wear.

i've no idea if there was anything to that other than my stepfather being a complete cheapskate though... certainly don't remember any odd happenings connected to his dead dads clothes...

 

[Elliesquire]

People wear jewellery from relatives who have passed away all the time.
I don't really see much difference.
Like Zoltan said, I don't suppose the dead really mind.

 

[Peripart]

People wear jewellery from relatives who have passed away all the time.
I don't really see much difference.

Yes, but I've never thought that chunky knitwear fell under the category of "family heirloom".

The original story reminds me too much of the Little Britain character who trawls the charity shops actively looking for clothes that someone has died in.

 

[liveinabin]

I had someone come it to the opticians one day wanting a pair of their dead mothers glasses reglazed to thier presription, The worst this was they still had blood on them!

 

[escargot]

Years ago, I bought from a jumble sale a flannelette nightie, the sort old ladies wear in black and white fillums. My mate joked that an old dear must've died in it!

I washed and dried it right away so I could wear it. This may not have seemed wise as it was July and very hot. However, I thought it'd be cool to sleep in without any bedclothes.

The night I wore it, I'd overdone the sun and was a little sunstruck and feverish. I had all sorts of mad dreams, and was awoken at 3am when my new radio alarm malfunctioned and went off cacophonously. :shock:

I sprang out of bed, convinced that the nightie's deceased owner had come back for it, and ripped it off and threw it down the stairs.

 

[mindalai]

I sprang out of bed, convinced that the nightie's deceased owner had come back for it, and ripped it off and threw it down the stairs.

God! That must have been terrifying...for anyone that saw you.

*taps microphone*

Is this thing on?

 

[mrpoultice]

While there may be some item specific folklore, I would guess that there wont be very much.

As in not too distant times the passing on of the clothes of a recently deceased person to other people / family members was a standard practice.

It's only in recent times and the disposable culture we live in, that with the relative cheapness of highstreet clothes and greater spendable incomes means we are much quicker to discard otherwise perfectly wearable clothing.

One of the perks of the job for city hangmen of the 18th century was first pick of the condemned’s clothing (usually they would take a shirt or waistcoat, but there are accounts of them having the breeches and stockings* as well!)

Quite what state someones trousers would be in after bing hanged though is anyones guess!
Mr P

 

[GNC]

It's the gentlemen who wish to wear their dead mother's clothes you have to worry about.

 

[rynner2]

It was once standard practice aboard sailing ships for a seaman's clothes and other effects to be sold off if (as was not uncommon) he had come to a premature end due to the hazards of the job.

I think the proceeds usually went to his family.

 

[OldTimeRadio]

If all the dead men's clothing I'm wearing right now were to suddenly vanish I'd either be arrested for indecent exposure or freeze to death.

When I go to bed tonight I'll be sleeping - quite comfortably, thank you - under a dead girlfriend's sheets and blankets plus another dead girlfriend's comforter in a dead woman's bed.

And here I'm the guy who's supposed to be afraid of the dead. Sheesh!

 

[felixgarnet]

You seem to be risky boyfriend material, OldTime Radio
I have a dead woman's furniture and a dead man's parka, if we're compiling statistics.

 

[OldTimeRadio]

You seem to be risky boyfriend material, OldTime Radio
I have a dead woman's furniture and a dead man's parka, if we're compiling statistics.

The explanation is that in my earlier years, especially, I tended to date women considerably older than myself.

 

[liveinabin]

It's the gentlemen who wish to wear their dead mother's clothes you have to worry about.

Like Jimmy Saville you mean?

 

[drjbrennan]

Posy simmonds, who drew a cartoon called 'Mrs Webbers Diary', had an episode where the family and friends at the dinner table found out that they were eating a 'Cassoulet' that had been cooked and deep frozen some months earlier by her now deceased Aunt. Most of the diners suddenly lost their appetite.

 

[escargot]

Ahh, Posy! I loved Posy. I wanted to be one of those long-skirted, pixybooted mums. Turns out I WAS one. 8)

I remember the casserole episode very well. High humour. :lol:

 

[kneesox1]

i sleep in the bed that my grandmother passed away in :shock: .

my mom took her out of the nursing home and cared for her in her last few months, and bought her a very nice mattress to put in the guest room, so she didn't spend very long on it, but it's still kind of a creepy thought. this was not long before i was to move into my apartment at school and i needed a bed-- i personally asked for it, and it doesn't bother me at all, after all, it's the most comfortable mattress i have ever encountered! i did have frequent grotesque dreams about my grandmother and her death for the first year while sleeping in that bed, still have them but not quite as often. i'm not going to pin it on her haunting the bed, but rather that i was very close to her and it was a very painful time for my family and i-- and she did not pass away as comfortably as we would have hoped, which is the basis of most of my unpleasant dreams about her.

on a lighter note... this past summer, my roommates and i moved into the house next door. as my mom and i were hauling the mattress into the new house, without thinking, i asked loudly, 'hey mom, do you remember which side she died on, cuz we need to make sure to flip it to the other side!!!' and my roommate, who was just coming down the stairs, overheard and the look on her face was PRICELESS... haha..

 

[OldTimeRadio]

Ancient Food

Back at Christmas, 1948, my Mom's Mom brought out a canned fruitcake she'd been saving for ten years.

Everybody raved about how dellcious it tasted.

Everybody but yours truly, that is.

I refused to eat a single bite.

I had no intention of consuming anything that was three years older than I was.

 

[escargot]

s'funny, I recently bought a very comfortable (and expensive :shock: ) mattress.

I thought, hmm, this cost a bomb, but as it's probably the last one I buy, at least I'll die on a comfy mattress... :shock:

 

[rynner2]

s'funny, I recently bought a very comfortable (and expensive :shock: ) mattress.

I thought, hmm, this cost a bomb, but as it's probably the last one I buy, at least I'll die on a comfy mattress... :shock:

I need a new bed and mattress. And it'll probably be the last one I buy, too....

Oops! Crossing over into Growing Old territory here... 8)

 

[escargot]

*pats duvet, grins lopsidedly*

Hello! 8)

 

[Anonymous]

You seem to be risky boyfriend material, OldTime Radio
I have a dead woman's furniture and a dead man's parka, if we're compiling statistics.

The explanation is that in my earlier years, especially, I tended to date women considerably older than myself.

And murder them.

Still, cheep bed linen, eh?

 

[Kondoru]

Let me think....

Great uncles black tie and woolly jacket
Great aunts blanket
Great grans linen sheets
Mums bodywarmer
Nans slippers
Mums moonboots

There must be more but I cant think of it

 

[OldTimeRadio]

You seem to be risky boyfriend material, OldTime Radio
I have a dead woman's furniture and a dead man's parka, if we're compiling statistics.

The explanation is that in my earlier years, especially, I tended to date women considerably older than myself.

And murder them.

Still, cheep bed linen, eh?

I'll have you know that I'm George Wagner and NOT George "Brides in the Bath" Smith!

 

[OldTimeRadio]

Let me think....

Great uncles black tie and woolly jacket
Great aunts blanket
Great grans linen sheets
Mums bodywarmer
Nans slippers
Mums moonboots

There must be more but I cant think of it

Just wait 'til they all come back for 'em!

 

[OldTimeRadio]

Being now of a certain age I'm entitled to use the local food pantry. There are usually also present a lot of freshly-laundered but previously-owned trousers, slacks, shorts, jackets, coats and so on.

Some of those are doubtless dead mens' clothes.

Though even more are likely the remains of....divorced men.

Those might carry their own special jinx.

 

[James_H]

I used to worry about this, because I'd buy tights from the Oxfam shop, etcetera. The sort of beigy, old lady ones. Someone pointed out to me they'd probably belonged to a granny who'd recently died, and it put me off buying secondhand 'old people's clothes' a bit.

 

[_Lizard23_]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5314164.stm
This would seem to be relevant here.
As a 'scientific experiment' members of the public were asked to put on a jumper, which they were then told had belonged to Fred West (it hadn't) and similarly to handle a fountain pen, which they were then told had belonged to Einstein (also not true) to guage their reactions to prove the vast majority of us are superstitious and irrational thinkers.

"We often think that objects have some degree of provenance which goes with them physically. A minority of people are totally rational; I doubt if I could find a totally cold rationalist."

Personally, I suppose it is 'a bit creepy' to think that your second hand clothes could have been worn by a dead person, but only if you think about it, and similarly the treasured keepsake of a departed (or even merely absent) loved one can be a bittersweet comfort.... it really depends on what mood I'm in as to whether I 'believe' that it's all just in the mind or that some sort of nonphysical essence of a person can become attached to an object through prolonged close contact,or if there is any difference between the two.

 

[Kondoru]

Its not the clothes I worry about, Old Time Radio.

Its my mother comming back for her house thats my concern.