by Cecilia Culverhouse
Renewing a tired garment can mean more than mending torn seams. The time and effort spent can also deepen your relationship with what you wear, according to Danielle Sponder Testa, one of 14 London College of Fashion students who participated in the Centre for Sustainable Fashion’s “Community Repair” project this past spring. Working under the tutelage of Swedish artist Otto von Busch, Sponder and her classmates collaborated with local designers, community organizations, and even fellow Eurostar train passengers to rejuvenate personal articles of clothing past their prime. By interacting with new people and engaging them in an activity beyond their typical scope, the students explored the impact garment repair had on their clothing, community, and indeed, one another.
A FEW SMALL REPAIRS
Although the students were told to mobilize their communities to repair or adjust an existing garment, the project wasn’t about designing a specific garment or conducting a group of people to solve a problem. Rather, Community Repair tasked participants to use repair as a tool for social empowerment, skill-sharing, and the practice of “do-it-together” versus “do-it-yourself.”
Community Repair tasked participants to use repair as a tool for social empowerment and skill-sharing.
“In the end we were asked what impact this repair has had on our emotional attachment to the garment, but realized it also had a deep impact on the emotional attachment to our communities and ourselves,” Testa says. “Many of us discovered people and places right near our homes that we never would have taken a second look at had this project not challenged us to explore our surroundings.”
(Source: www.ecouterre.com )