Making repair sexy again

Sashiko Denim repair

Repairing textiles, why don’t we do it? It might have to do with our perception of perfection and the image of repairing. What is nature's way to repair? And if you want to repair, how do you do it?

For creating a circular economy the following principles are used in this specific order: Reduce, reuse, repair, refurbish, remanufacture and then recycling. When a product follows this line the materials in it are used as long as possible and have the most value.

In my articles I paid attention to multiple of these principles: recycling on fibre level, use of a garment, design for disassembly, reduction of use with for example a clothing library. About repair I wrote little.

Maybe because repair sounds so simple I neglected to write about it? Maybe because it isn’t about innovative techniques? Maybe because it isn’t sexy?

But then you, the designers, are the right persons of all to make it sexy again! And that I do not mean in a shallow way. Designers of all know how to think as a user, listen to a user and translate their needs into good functional designs. 
Maybe you get some inspiration from the beautiful book Mending Life about repairing clothes.

Repairing something lost its value years ago. Humans have a need for beauty, perfection and symmetry. Something broken is imperfect and repairing it, wearing it, makes this visible. 
This has a deeply rooted cause, cleanliness, I wrote about that in 2012.  

What is perfect is linked to time, place and notion. I rather experience a sense of completeness. With feeling complete you can enjoy the moments in between, they aren’t spotless, but feel like everything fits. In eastern philosophies you find this feeling of unity and completeness much more.

Nature isn’t perfect too, but she is complete. In nature aging is completely accepted, as nature is cyclical. From this point of view our understanding of perfection is a linear concept, because this means you aim for an final destination, while nature has no end.

How are we going to make textile repair sexy and out of the DIY-corner but interesting for designers/companies to give as a service?
Below you find examples of repairing textiles.

Charlotte Bailey was fascinated by the traditional Japanese mending technique called kintsugi, where a broken ceramic object is repaired with metals.

Stitch over the fabric

Add a patch, these are made by hand.

And more inspiration you find on my Pinterestboard.