There has been a huge decline in the repair of clothing over the last few generations. The rise of fast fashion means that a tear in a shirt or dress usually spells its end, as it’s often easier to buy something new rather than mending or patching our old clothes. What’s more, the skills needed to repair and mend clothing have largely died away, along with the mentality that goes along with them.
Americans dispose of around 17 million tons of textile waste annually, which is the equivalent of each person throwing away 191 T-shirts every year. While some of this textile waste is in the form of carpets, footwear, sheets and towels, it's mostly clothing. Only 15 percent of textiles are recycled, meaning that landfills receive an overwhelming amount of solid textile waste every year.
However, there’s a small, yet potentially powerful uprising thanks to the revival of needle power. People are quietly putting their hands where their money and values are and repairing, mending, re-working and remembering the true value of their textiles.
“Visible mending” is a new way for people to protest the fast fashion industry. Instead of throwing away old or torn garments, they repair them in a visible and often creative fashion. Small holes are transformed into flowers and larger holes are covered with colorful scraps of fabric. Showing off these patches is a way for visible menders to draw attention to the fact that a garment’s lifespan has been extended.
