3 minute read
Why repairs matters?
from ECOPOLITAN® - No3
by Ecopolitan®
BY ALICIA MINNAARD
Repairing history dates back centuries ago, starting with the underrated invention of the needle 30.000 to 60.000 years ago. Across cultures and throughout history, people have been repairing textiles to extend their beauty, wearability, and utility, for both practical and sentimental reasons. A difference at the time is that basic knowledge of textiles was more common and very valuable. Household linens and clothing were durable and expensive items, used as an "alternative currency system", because of their potential exchange value, worth caring for and maintaining.
As the nineteenth century progressed, most textile production was at a high level because of the Industrial Revolution. Which eventually shifted to one big post-colonized global industry driven by the Global North. The Era of Fast Fashion has entered. Replacing has become easier than repairing and the foundation of the industry bases itself on profit at the expense of quality, the environment, and people's rights and lives. Once it was a currency, now it is disposable.
So who is responsible for fashion waste?
Pretty simple. (Big) companies, designers, governments, consumers, people, every role is responsible and each has a different role to play. We won't come far if we keep pointing fingers at who is responsible and wait till someone has the one solution for such a complex industry. There are more solutions needed than one. And not the ones that are still based on profit.
Our responsibility as clothing wearers is not limited to consuming correctly but goes further into how we maintain and pass on our clothes and eventually throw them away. A garment has no finish line but is always a starting point of another cycle and finds itself in different stages. So a product is not up for recycling after a few wears and a broken, faded garment is not up for donation.
We learn how to get better relationships with the things we own.
No matter how much you take care of your garments or how well made the garment is, accidents like stains and rips will happen. So in that stage, the effort of a repair can create that other lifecycle. The act of it reminds us that making something takes time, that it is worth mending for its value and for who made it. We learn how to get better relationships with the things we own. It also reminds us that decay is inherent in our world. Denying this brought us into trouble in the first place. By repairing and improving what does not function, we improve what doesn't work. I believe that this way of looking at clothes reduces the need for new production, the existence of waste, and our feeling of never enough.
Then maybe the only thing that will still hold us back from repairing is that time is precious and repairing can take time. So fixing services are needed more than ever. The other thing that holds us back is the mentality that repairing is done in an inferior state. But now a t-shirt is cheaper than a coffee. I think repairing is more a political act where you show and say you are against this system of exploitation, colonization, overconsumption, and overproduction. And who doesn't want to identify with that?
