I've recently become a huge fan of visible mending, if you don't know what it is, it's the idea of fixing clothes not so they look like they did originally but so you can see the repair. You're enhancing clothes by fixing them, making them more unique and personal than they were before they broke!
Mending your clothes is a great way of keeping your wardrobe sustainable, by giving clothes a longer life and making sure they last. Even if you're giving clothes to a charity shop or selling them online, fixing them first means they're more likely to be sold and continue to be worn and loved, and a lot less likely to end up in landfill. So I'm a huge advocate for visible mending!
It took me a lot longer than I anticipated to put this post together though, as when I reached out everyone was saying "yes please I want inspiration" while there weren't too many people saying that they had done their own visible mending! But I kept searching and found some wonderful examples of visible mends to inspire you! Each one has a quote from the person who made the repair so you can read what they think about visible mending!
I. Love. These! These trousers had a rip in the knee and were repaired by sewing this scary little face over the front! Reminds me of chain chomp from mario and honestly these plain black jeans have a new life and feel after being repaired. Super fun, super unique!
"I try to repair and upcycle as much as I can, especially my children's clothes. Even if they weren't already growing like weeds, they are active and outdoorsy so rips and holes appear often. I'm always guided by the fabric and the wearer and this particular one was almost literally screaming out for a screaming monster."
This is definitely a unique scarf, I love how you can kind of still see the holes in it but they've been made bright and colourful and are no longer holes. It's just a very lovely mismatched scarf which I think has been enhanced by this repair. Also those colours!
"I have always been interested in making clothes last, and over the last few years I have become more and more interested in issues in fast fashion production, which has myriad problems. Mending your clothes to make them last longer is a disruptive practice that goes against the grain of the fast fashion cycle. Through my Visible Mending Programme, I provide repair inspiration and share and provide repair skills in an attempt to break this cycle. Mending should be something that becomes normal again; something I want to achieve by making mends beautifully visible"Also on Tom's instagram is lots of repair inspiration, he's a textile practitioner and artist and also I think does repair workshops in Brighton!
These Jeans were part of an exhibition by Kat featuring lots of giant knitted tubes and lots of colourful textiles. She's a textile artist who is doing some really cool stuff. I love that these jeans are incredible colourful but also kind of messy! It looks like someone has got a load of paint and splattered it all over the jeans but it's actually darning/embroidery. You can tell these jeans had rips in them and have been repaired but they're still made super unique by the messy artsy repair.
I don't have a quote from Kat yet but will update this post if I get one!
I think this is my favourite visible repair ever, this jumper was a thrift shop buy that had cigarette burns on from a previous owner and so Lily covered it up with a beautiful constellation. Honestly The astrophysicist in me is obsessed with this. It wouldn't be a jumper I'd but if I saw it before the repair but now I want one! This is a prime example of clothes being enhances and made so special and beautiful through visible mending.
"Visible mending is wonderful because it highlights the wear and tear loved clothing goes through, a lot of the garments I have I cherish even more once they are repaired because it adds a little extra piece to the story of that clothing item. Visible mending is a great way to show that you are actively fighting against fast fashion and consumerism, and hopefully it can inspire others to do the same!"
These Patches up shirts are definitely a more conventional way of visibly mending clothing but I really love these! Rachel does a lot of natural dyeing, growing plants and making beautiful colours from them (something I am very eager to try) and the patches on these are no exception! They were dyed with acorn, avocado, indigo and pomegranate and honestly it's so amazing and so sustainable. Goals.
"I think visible mending is a nice way to add your own individual touch to a garment while extending its life and creating less waste in the world! How interesting would it be if more people took this approach? There would be less need for cheap, fast, throw away fashion."
I wasn't going to end this post without talking a little about my own visible mending, shamelessly I know but I'm proud! If you haven't already seen it I made a blog post about mending a pair of my jeans and I am so happy with how they turned out and excited to mend some more clothes (which I'm sure I'll need to do soon I am very skilled at accidentally breaking stuff). And yeah! I hope you like it too.
And if you don't know how to fix your own clothes? Try a local repair cafe. There you'll find people to help you with all sorts, from mending clothes to fixing a broken TV. Or go on youtube, it's a magical place where you can learn lots of skills! Plus if you live in a big city there's often workshops going on, like beginners sewing, embroidery etc. lots of places for all budgets to learn skills. Show your clothes some love and repair them.
Do you have any visible mending on your to do list? Have you done any yourself? Let me know, I'd love to create a part two to this post! If you have any repairs then send them my way and I'll feature them in my next post.
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