“Do you thrift?” is a question you’ve almost certainly been asked in the last 4-5 years if you’re at all interested in fashion. Sustainable, fun, and most importantly, cheap, thrifting has boomed in popularity with Gen Z during the COVID era and beyond. However, with the rise in popularity has come higher prices and more crowded thrift stores, making finding that perfect piece a little less likely. So, what can a sustainability-minded person do to avoid the crowds and price increases? Repair!
Repairing your clothing is nothing new, of course, but the majority of individuals still aren’t doing it (1). Fortunately, brands such as Levi’s and Patagonia have you covered by making repairs as easy as they could possibly be.
A sizable majority of individuals don’t mend or repair their own clothes, most commonly citing price as the reason they shy away from the practice. What brands like Patagonia are doing is making ethical consumption affordable. Patagonia offers free repair kits for small holes and patches, even mailing them straight to you free of cost! If a more severe repair is necessary, all they require is for you to bring your item to a store, or to mail it to them directly. This encourages you to not only learn to repair your clothes, but also to wear your clothes to the point of needing a repair, reducing consumption – the ultimate goal of sustainable fashion.
Levi’s is another great example of a brand to shop from if you’re thinking about including repairs in your future plans. What they do is offer DIY tutorials for repairing your jeans, as well as hosting stores with their own tailoring services, repairs included. Even cooler is that at their repair shops, you can have your old jeans turned into bags, jackets, wallets or patches – whatever you can think of really. While these services aren’t free like Patagonia’s, the freedom offered to turn an old pair of jeans into just about anything makes up the difference. If you really don’t feel up to the task of repairing your old Levi’s, they offer a service allowing you to bring in an old pair you no longer want in exchange for a store gift card, and the denim from your old pair is then repurposed. Levi’s promotes a circular economy of denim, with buyers ideally only purchasing anything new once every few years.
Of course, you don’t require a brand’s officially sponsored program in order to repair your clothes, it’s quite the opposite. In fact, what the brands above all really hope with their programs is that you’ll save a bit of money, repair your clothes once, and your foot will be in the door for it to become a regular practice. All it takes is a thread, needle, some fabric, and less than an hour of your time as a complete beginner.
Falling into fast fashion trends and replacing your unwanted/unwearable clothes with brand new versions is an easy trap to fall into, but I seriously encourage you to dip your toes into repairing. It’s easy, it gets the crafty part of your brain going, it will give your old clothes a worn and unique look, and most importantly, it will save you money. Start small – you will wish you’d started way sooner.
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