Friday 12 March 2021: From Kate Sekules – ‘Since we are all still stuck at home I especially loudly want to invite you to the #MendMarch party on Instagram.
In case you’re new to Instagram, this is a fun challenge in which we all mend together, every day in March each year, using the prompts / themes I just posted on my feed visiblemend. Also there’ll be reminders every week. There is never any pressure; just drop in when you’re feeling it. I promise shenanigans, friends, support, laughs, and one enormous dent in your mend pile. Check out the tag for previous -I recommend you look for Katrine’s; they are most fabulous and very silly. Swipe for a couple of old, and large, mends of mine, which I think debuted in a MendMarch past. Anyway, thank you massively Katrine for all the Mayhemmers (as it says on p.218 of MEND!) March is such a great month and mending is what we’ll enjoy together!
Old clothes aren’t worn out, they’re opportunities. Mending is now trending.
Kate was born and raised in London, lives in Brooklyn with my husband, daughter and two cats, and was, for many years, a magazine editor. Then in 2009, when that entire industry entered its death throes, and Kate founded Refashioner, the first of the now ubiquitous personal closet trading sites.
As Kate learned more and more about the world of old clothes, and how it connects to today’s fashion industry, I realized the way we consume is completely messed up. I got involved in the ethical fashion movement. And I went all the way into research and turned academic. I am doing a PhD in material culture and design history, specifically: developing a taxonomy of mending. Eventually I’ll be Doctor of Mending.
Noting how people glaze over when you say “eco” or “ethical” I always think how great if it was simply more fun to swap and trade and mend and lend and value our own good clothes than to zombie-buy sweat shop fashions. That was the idea behind Refashioner, and the reason Visible Mending is getting all trendy. Let’s have it last longer than a trend. Mending is forever.
Remember that you can’t wreak a garment than need mending. It’s already broken and was going to be thrown away.
Read about overshopping.
Top 10 reasons to visible mend.
Read about refashioner.