Alice Brown, a 27-year-old forest ranger from Lincolnshire, covers holes and stains in her clothes with needle-felted animals and insects. She says she sees damaged clothing as a challenge. Her designs have won her a large online following.
Visible mending is spreading from hobby crafters and community workshops to fast-fashion brands and designer catwalks, according to the report. Jayne Eagle runs workshops in Brighton, where she teaches students to use Japanese Boro and Sashiko techniques and contrasting thread to make mends stand out. She describes repair as an "act of rebellion" against fast fashion. She links the revival to a backlash against overproduction and its pollution, carbon emissions, water use and poor labour conditions.
Retailers are adopting the trend in different ways. Ralph Lauren and Shein sell stitched and patched garments, but both sell new items. Uniqlo offers in-house repairs and decorative Sashiko mending. Primark has also joined, with its longevity lead, Vicki Swain, saying affordability and durability "should not be opposites." Finisterre says about a fifth of its customer mends are designed to be eye-catching. Toast says about a third of its customers choose that option.
Levi's is rolling out a workshop programme. It focuses on traditional mending, such as sewing on a button and hemming, rather than visible repairs. Levi's says its research shows younger customers want to repair more but do not know how. Some young participants at a London launch event said they would prefer repairs that do not show. One, 16-year-old Bianca, said holes in clothes can draw mockery that the wearer is poor. Paul Dillinger, Levi's head of global design innovation, said he expects creative repairs to win over customers as they gain skills.