Mending is a radical act

There’s a saying that often circulates in critical conversations about the fashion industry: “the most sustainable garment is the one you already own.”

Despite what careful branding from eco-conscious clothing companies might have us believe, this sentiment has become such an axiom because of its undeniable truth. It takes a staggering amount of resources to produce a single item of clothing, and the most sustainable use of those resources will always be to extend its functional life as long as possible.

Often, the only way to achieve this full longevity is by mending and reinforcing the garment during its life cycle. Many of us are comfortable with quick fixes—you might already know how to replace a button, for example, or tack down the frayed edge of a hem. But you might be surprised by how much more you can get from a needle and thread—a carefully-employed lattice of running stitches can reinforce a weak spot on a beloved pair of jeans before the rip even has a chance to form, and a simple darning weave can fill a hole by conjuring an entirely new patch of cloth in thin air as you stitch.

When we mend something, we reject both this learned wastefulness and the harmful undercurrent of classism that allows it to thrive.

There are some who say that mending is having its "moment" in fashion right now. And while it's certainly true that the practice has seen a recent resurgence—the textile arts, fiber, and slow fashion communities have all coalesced around mending as a visual art of its own in the past decade, and some people now embellish their favorite clothing using mending techniques whether or not they actually need repair—it would be reductive to dismiss it as a trend. As long as we've been wearing clothes, we've been fixing them. It’s only in the last century, as we’ve embraced fast fashion—the constant practice of "upgrading" our wardrobes to suit the trends, which is as bad for the planet as it is for our wallets—that mending what we already have has become less common.

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Hannah Rain Finegold is the instructor for Visible Mending: Repairing and Reviving Your Best-Loved Garments, starting March 3. Find out more.

When we mend something, we reject both this learned wastefulness and the harmful undercurrent of classism that allows it to thrive. By using decorative techniques, which celebrate and emphasize our repairs rather than concealing them, we take this reclamation a step further: to mend is no longer just a practical choice or an act of necessity, it becomes a thoughtful and intentional practice, normalized and encouraged through visibility.

A repair is a small act of resilience, but it has effects that ripple much further out: something is kept from the landfill, money stays in your pocket, an object is given a new life, and you utilize your skill and care to magically transform what you have into what you need.