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Cut Down on Fashion Waste by Mending

February 15, 2018

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Disposable clothing is problematic. If you’ve been reading our blog, you probably already know that, but just in case you need a reminder, here’s why:

“In 2010, the global apparel industry produced more than 150 billion garments — enough to provide more than 20 new articles of clothing to every person on the planet,” reports Stefanie Koperniak from MIT. In her same article, she talks about the millions of tonnes of coal required to produce all of this clothing and it leads us to wonder why we are consuming items that should be able to last well beyond a single season.

There are a lot of answers to this question. One answer is that fashion changes and everyone likes to have new items to add to their closets. Another is that a lot of clothing is made poorly and literally falls apart after a few wears or a few washes. Both of these answers aren’t good enough for us. First of all, everyone needs some solid, timeless basics. Classic never goes out of style and you can always add a few trendy pieces without needing an entirely new wardrobe every couple of months.

Clothing quality? Now that’s a subject we can go on and on about. As clothing care specialists, we spend our days examining clothing. We’re looking at fabric, seams, and details constantly and can tell you without question that it’s worth it to invest in quality clothing, especially the closet staples. The planet will thank you and so will your wallet. On top of that, we are confident that your clothing will look better because it will be made properly and will have important elements like straight seams!

The Guardian recently published an article all about how to make sustainable fashion choices and we found one of their suggestions particularly great. They suggest that more people consider mending their clothing. This used to be common practice before fast fashion. You snag your sweater? You fix it! Apparently, people are taking mending to the next level and are using embroidery techniques to make a statement, which is great, but basic mending is a wonderful place to start. “’Most clothing problems are easily mendable: missing buttons and loose stitching, for example. But mending is also an opportunity to make your clothes better than new. Visible mending allows you to be creative and celebrate the life of your clothes,’ says Erin Lewis-Fitzgerald, who runs a Visible Mending Project in Melbourne.”

No, we’re not suggesting that you spend hours learning how to mend all of your own clothing (although you can if you want to). We can do that part! We’re just saying that investing in high quality clothing and then caring for that clothing with proper washing and reasonable repairs are easy ways to make your closet more sustainable.

Our Parkers locations offer mending and tailoring services, so feel free to bring your clothing in need of repair or alterations to us! Also, if you’re looking for other ways to be sustainable, check out all of our green cleaning options.

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