Why Don’t We Talk More About Repairs and Mending?
Photo via SFF
One of the biggest issues at the intersection of fashion and sustainability is the massive underutilization of clothing. Each year, millions of clothes are produced, worn, and thrown away, often after only a few wears. Motivated by the threat of natural resources diminishing and a growing concern among consumers about the environmental impact of their purchases, the industry has identified circular fashion as a potential solution to textile waste and fashion’s most pressing problems.
A circular economy or a closed-loop system is one where materials are endlessly reused and recycled, thus eliminating waste and pollution by limiting the extractive production of virgin raw materials, regenerating natural systems, and decreasing textile waste. In a circular system, fashion could overcome its contribution to climate change, pollution, and waste, while simultaneously creating opportunities for responsible growth.
In a circular economy, the full potential of our clothes’ value can be achieved because each garment can be worn repeatedly before being repurposed into new inputs. Extending the life of garments is a crucial pillar to the circular system and is often accomplished via secondhand and rental business models.
Over the years, rental, resale, subscription services, and peer-to-peer sharing platforms have gone from niche to mainstream, emerging as solutions to keep clothing in the cycle and help shift consumer perception away from thinking of clothing as disposable. These circular business models allow companies to make money without extracting new raw materials and present a significant opportunity for the fashion industry to decouple revenue from production and resource use.
However, a key component often left out of the conversation is repairs. Repairs are a vital link to enabling circular systems. Not only does repairing an item extend its longevity, but it also reduces its environmental footprint. Unlike resale, rental, and even subscription models which still depend on a level of consumption, repairs offer an alternative to throwaway culture by extending the life of the clothing in our personal wardrobes and our shared closets.
From an industry perspective.
As the fashion industry moves towards a more circular economy, brands are offering post-purchase services like cleaning, repairs, tailoring, and restoration as an opportunity to support long-term use and enable customers to wear their clothes longer.
However, despite more brands offering aftercare, post-purchase services haven’t been a priority at scale across the industry. Even when it’s available, there’s often a barrier to entry, such as proof of purchase.
Educating customers on how to care for their clothes — repair small holes, replace missing buttons, remove stains — and offering repair services is crucial to influencing customers to invest in their wardrobe beyond the initial purchase and move away from the throwaway mindset.
From the Consumer Perspective.
When it comes to curating a sustainable wardrobe, the conversation is often presented from a buying perspective -- what brands to shop for, what fabrics to look for, what certifications to buy into, etc. However, considering that the most sustainable garment is the one you already own, taking care of your clothes is the most sustainable thing you can do.
Being conscious of shopping habits and making sustainable purchases is an important part of the equation. Still, it is equally (if not more) important to care for our wardrobes and reduce environmental impact by simply making our clothes last longer.
In a fast fashion world, where it’s often cheaper and easier to buy new, repairing offers a behavioral shift rejecting the notion that newer is better. Whether we spent $5, $50, or $500 on a garment, caring enough to invest our time and resources into fixing what we have causes us to value it more, take better care of it, wear it more often and, pass it on to someone else when we’re done rather than tossing it in the garbage,
As we move towards a circular fashion economy, putting an end to the current linear ‘make-take-dispose’ model, it’s clear that aftercare needs to be as much a part of the fashion experience as the initial purchase.
How can we expand the repair economy and make post-purchase services like cleaning, repairs, tailoring, and restoration a bigger part of the conversation?
How do we make repairs attractive and change consumer mindset to see their clothing as valuable and worth spending money to mend even when it's often less expensive to just replace it?
What can we learn from the popularity of take-back programs to help change consumer behavior and make participating in non-linear systems the norm?
Tune in for an exclusive roundtable between Sojo founder Josephine Philips and The Restory co-founder and head of marketing & business development, Emily Rea, during the 2022 Sustainable Fashion Forum about how/why repairs need to be a more significant part of the sustainability conversation. Plus, hear Timberland, a VF Company’s director of global community engagement & activation, Atlanta McIlwraith, share insights on what the brand has learned since launching Timberloop, what it says about consumers' appetite for circular systems, and what can we learn from the popularity of take-back programs to change consumer behavior and make circular systems the norm.
