I'm planning on taking a bit of a break from this blog for the next year because...
-Over the next year I will be completing my PhD
-From the 1st Jan 2013 I will be starting my new project 'Through the mangle'
I really hope to come back to this blog in January 2014, with more time for practical projects and design focused posts. I'd also like to post a few excerpts from my thesis.
Until then, you can follow my progress here:
@mangledcloth,
http://throughthemangle.blogspot.co.uk/
Monday, 12 November 2012
Wednesday, 22 August 2012
Dry Cleaning: Do you do it?
My research didn't set out to find anything about how we launder our clothing, but almost every participant I interviewed mentioned that:
a) They avoid clothing that is dry clean only
b) If they do accidentally buy clothing that is dry clean only then they hand wash/ machine wash it anyway
I presume the main motivations for avoiding dry cleaning is expense and inconvenience. If we all hate dry cleaning so much then why is the industry still manufacturing dry clean only fabrics?
Friday, 10 August 2012
MEND*RS v.s. SCAP. Or, things I've done recently
When asked to be part of the MENDR*S blog tour I really wanted to share my experience of not only the MEND*RS symposium but also the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP) conference that I attended a few weeks later. The focus of the SCAP conference was to launch WRAP's* new publication ' Valuing our clothes: The true cost of how we design, use and dispose of clothing in the UK' in which repair is featured.
*To avoid confusion I should explain that WRAP are a government advisory body set up to advise on waste and recycling.
So, let's start with my experience of MEND*RS. It was glorious to be amongst the 'mending converted', very rarely do I leave a conference with my heart lifted but the atmosphere was just so positive. It was also nice to see some familiar faces, including the lovely ladies from Stitched Up, who had attended the Northern Network event back in April.
Unfortunately Lizzie Harrison of Antiform was unable to present alongside me at the conference as her car was stuck in the mud at Beatherder festival. To give you a very brief summary of what I presented, we were proposing that repairs services could (and should) become part of a 'fashion experience'. Branding, styling and social media could all be used to make services more appealing to the wider population of fashion consumers, and could be made available on the highstreet.
Mending was approached from many different angles, so it was interesting for me to be coming from a less artisan/grass roots stance, and a more from a 'mass mending' stance (I personally identify much more with the former).
Of course, it was not just mending clothing that was discussed. For me two of the most interesting presentations of the weekend were Clare Thomas' presentation 'Small acts of repair: mending a beach by taking away the plastic pollution left behind' and Kyle Wiens of ifixit.com Skype presentation 'How tinkerers, hackers and self taught mechanics are fixing the world'. They were interesting to me because they both made me think about mending in a different way, which was inspiring; Clare because she's mending the planet in a very literal sense, and Kyle because he has empowered so many other people with his website of instructional guides.
The SCAP conference had a totally different atmosphere, and a very different set of delegates. Less walking boots and raincoat, and more suit and tie! There were an awful lot of representative from industry there, which of course is a positive thing.
I noted in my presentation at MEND*RS that there was no data on the actual occurrences of mending in the UK, but the WRAP publication have addressed this gap, finding that:
'While nearly three-quarters of people are able to sew a button on and nearly half can darn or patch a hole, or take a hem up or down, over half of women and nearly a quarter of men expressed an interest in learning more about how to repair clothing'
This finding is really encouraging, both for home mending and those of us who are building businesses on teaching repair skills. The publication also identifies an 'opportunity for business' to provide mending services on a much wider scale. This ties in nicely with my MEND*RS presentation, but as I mentioned at MEND*RS there are economic barriers to repair in the UK- the report did not touch on this point.
Although I found the SCAP conference interesting, I definitely had the feeling that their report missed out on something. Their sense of valuing clothing was purely monetary, with almost no regard for the symbolic value of clothing. It was all a little too stark for me, not enough 'touchy feely'-ness!
...
On the train home from MEND*RS I started to think about what sets apart the 'converted' menders that I had met over the weekend. Confidence is something that came up time and time again in regards to mending skills, but I think confidence plays a really prominent role in making the decision to keep things for longer in the first place. What makes me not give a flying flip when someone laughs at my old Nokia? Well, I'm confident in the decision I made to not replace my phone until it was un-fixable. Anyone lacking that same confidence could of buckled under the pressure from peers and advertising to upgrade to the newest model. Instilling the confidence in people to behave differently to the 'norm' could be mending's biggest challenge.
I can only hope that the ideas, conversations and thoughts that came out of both events will inspire a good old fashioned bit of mending. Viva mending!
*To avoid confusion I should explain that WRAP are a government advisory body set up to advise on waste and recycling.
So, let's start with my experience of MEND*RS. It was glorious to be amongst the 'mending converted', very rarely do I leave a conference with my heart lifted but the atmosphere was just so positive. It was also nice to see some familiar faces, including the lovely ladies from Stitched Up, who had attended the Northern Network event back in April.
Unfortunately Lizzie Harrison of Antiform was unable to present alongside me at the conference as her car was stuck in the mud at Beatherder festival. To give you a very brief summary of what I presented, we were proposing that repairs services could (and should) become part of a 'fashion experience'. Branding, styling and social media could all be used to make services more appealing to the wider population of fashion consumers, and could be made available on the highstreet.
Mending was approached from many different angles, so it was interesting for me to be coming from a less artisan/grass roots stance, and a more from a 'mass mending' stance (I personally identify much more with the former).
Of course, it was not just mending clothing that was discussed. For me two of the most interesting presentations of the weekend were Clare Thomas' presentation 'Small acts of repair: mending a beach by taking away the plastic pollution left behind' and Kyle Wiens of ifixit.com Skype presentation 'How tinkerers, hackers and self taught mechanics are fixing the world'. They were interesting to me because they both made me think about mending in a different way, which was inspiring; Clare because she's mending the planet in a very literal sense, and Kyle because he has empowered so many other people with his website of instructional guides.
The SCAP conference had a totally different atmosphere, and a very different set of delegates. Less walking boots and raincoat, and more suit and tie! There were an awful lot of representative from industry there, which of course is a positive thing.
I noted in my presentation at MEND*RS that there was no data on the actual occurrences of mending in the UK, but the WRAP publication have addressed this gap, finding that:
'While nearly three-quarters of people are able to sew a button on and nearly half can darn or patch a hole, or take a hem up or down, over half of women and nearly a quarter of men expressed an interest in learning more about how to repair clothing'
This finding is really encouraging, both for home mending and those of us who are building businesses on teaching repair skills. The publication also identifies an 'opportunity for business' to provide mending services on a much wider scale. This ties in nicely with my MEND*RS presentation, but as I mentioned at MEND*RS there are economic barriers to repair in the UK- the report did not touch on this point.
Although I found the SCAP conference interesting, I definitely had the feeling that their report missed out on something. Their sense of valuing clothing was purely monetary, with almost no regard for the symbolic value of clothing. It was all a little too stark for me, not enough 'touchy feely'-ness!
...
On the train home from MEND*RS I started to think about what sets apart the 'converted' menders that I had met over the weekend. Confidence is something that came up time and time again in regards to mending skills, but I think confidence plays a really prominent role in making the decision to keep things for longer in the first place. What makes me not give a flying flip when someone laughs at my old Nokia? Well, I'm confident in the decision I made to not replace my phone until it was un-fixable. Anyone lacking that same confidence could of buckled under the pressure from peers and advertising to upgrade to the newest model. Instilling the confidence in people to behave differently to the 'norm' could be mending's biggest challenge.
I can only hope that the ideas, conversations and thoughts that came out of both events will inspire a good old fashioned bit of mending. Viva mending!
Friday, 3 August 2012
My new blog...
My new blog will be up and running in January 2013. Here it is in it's very early manifestation...
http://throughthemangle.blogspot.co.uk/
http://throughthemangle.blogspot.co.uk/
Get you pants out (of landfill)!!!
 |
| Image courtesy of Emiliana Underwear |
A lot of textiles recycling processes break garments down into a fibrous state or 'shoddy', so it doesn't matter what it was before, it can be recycled. I think it's important to share the message that our pants should be going into textiles recycling bins (often conveniently found in supermarket car parks) and not into landfill!
It's also worth noting that charity shops don't just make money from re-selling good condition clothing, they can also sell lower quality items to textiles recyclers and rag merchants. So, in theory giving your old pants to charity can still make them money. Any thing's better than the bin!
Sunday, 22 July 2012
MEND*RS blog tour
My excited and anticipation for the MEND*RS symposium in the Lake District was not displaced. It really was a terrific, cockle warming, inspiring weekend. And furthermore, I couldn't be more thrilled to be part of the MEND*RS blog tour. I will be posting my thoughts and experiences on the 10th August, but until then I urge you to check out all the other blogs on tour...
Tuesday, 24 April 2012
Sustainable Clothing Design: Use Matters
Check out this great article written by Laitala and Boks, both of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. In my opinion clothing use is greatly under researched, which is why I am so interested in it.
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