Can mending our clothes become mainstream and a sign of affluence?
I think it can! And I will do what I can to make it happen.
Try to think about what makes something “in” or fashionable. A lot of the time it has to do with showing off your own wealth. Centuries ago being pale was considered beautiful. The main reason for that was because if you were pale you could afford not to work out in the fields. It used to be considered beautiful to be overweight, a sign of affluence. Now it is the opposite, and being tanned largely became popular at the time people started being able to go on holiday to warmer and sunnier places. A tanned skin meant you could afford to travel and take time off, not sit in an office all day. These are just a couple of examples, but I think you get the picture.
Clothes used to be expensive. Before the sewing machines were invented in the mid 1800’s most people only had two outfits, one for working and one for church. You better believe those clothes were mended! It is not that long ago that it was cheaper to make clothes yourself than to buy them, but because of the exploitation of workers in non-western countries that is not the case any more. Nowadays just buying the fabric will often cost more than a finished product in a fast fashion store. If you don’t know how to sew yourself it can even cost more to get your clothes mended than to buy them new! If you buy cheap clothes chances are you’ll save time and money by throwing away your broken clothes and buying something new rather than locating a seamstress or tailor and have them mend it. Maybe you know how to sew a bit yourself, but even then few feel like they have enough time to sit down with a mending project. Never mind the fact that most of us have so many clothes that we could probably often get rid of the broken item without needing to replace it at all.
Even though I don’t think it is a good thing that trends tend to be set by what gives you status or makes you appear wealthy, it still gives me hope that mending can become fashionable as time becomes more of a scarcity than money, and having time to mend, or even money to mend becomes a sign of success. That would be a fashion trend I could get behind and one our that would give relief to our planet.
What would it take to make you feel well in mended clothes?
One person who inspires me and has really taken mending to new levels is “tomofholland”
You should definitely check out his blog and his instagram account if you are at all interested in lowering consumption and caring for your most loved clothes.
