creating feature Mend slowlivingactivism

Mending is a radical anti-consumerist act

December 16, 2020

Since we’ve moved into the van I’ve discovered a love for visible mending. There’s something so beautifully therapeutic about taking a garment that’s no longer wearable and stitching new life into it. 

I’m no expert, and I’m also not holding myself up as any paragon of virtue where clothing is concerned: I still buy the odd thing in the sale, and don’t always remember to check the provenance of clothes I buy. I see this mindset as a more long-term approach – as the years roll by we buy less, what we do buy new is generally more expensive but we buy to last – and we mend, mend, mend! Building new, better habits takes time, but we’re committed to sewing this way of being into our lives, and forgive ourselves when we don’t always live up to our ideals as we are also a work-in-progress.

But, as this organic connection is growing with our clothing we find we cannot part with things we’ve spend real time and energy mending, as threads of of time and focus have been stitched into the garment. This in turn develops a true appreciation for the work that goes into making an item of clothing so that we care for them instead of throwing them out… 

this is the first pair of socks I knitted for Andy about seven years ago. The sole is rapidly becoming more darning than sock – but that in itself is a piece of art, the history of places his feet have trod.

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