In rural Japan, during the early years of the last century, it was common for working people to gather scraps of used indigo blue cotton and to stitch them together into patchwork clothes and bedding material. Other fragments were added as the fabric wore thin. These pieces, now widely collected, have come to be known as 'boro' (which means 'ragged').

The attraction of 'boro' textiles is accidental and unintentional. They are the remains of functional and humble items, and many are now shown inside out in order to reveal all the patches. Their 'wabi-sabi', a Japanese term for beauty that is characterized by imperfection, impermanence, and incompleteness, is nonetheless striking.