It can be so annoying when a favorite piece of clothing tears or fall apart. In our modern world, where things are bought and thrown away in a heartbeat, tearing clothes usually lead to throwing them away. It can be upsetting when it’s something we loved to wear and might not find again. It’s also wasteful and bad for the environment. But then again, what can we do? A torn dress will never look the same.
A growing movement online has decided to challenge that idea. People from all over the world have stopped throwing their ruined clothes away and started mending them. Sure, this old pair of jeans won’t look the way it did when it was first bought, but why not see this as an opportunity? Instead of trying to hide the tears, menders turn to “visible mending” – using decorative stitches and bold colors to show where the clothes were mended and turn the mend into art.
This is, of course, not a new idea. In fact, visible mending draws inspiration from a Japanese art called “Sashiko”, a mending technique that uses big, bold stitches to create designs. Now, this ancient art is being brought back to life by young, creative and environmentally-minded people who turn their old, tattered clothes into wearable art.