#mendingthings

The ”Mending Things” articles put into words my very thoughts on clothing – taking care of and mending our clothes serves as an act of acknowledging their service. I hold onto my clothes for a long time – many of my t-shirts are still from early high school from the one Christmas when all I asked for were band shirts. Even though my music tastes have definitely changed, I keep the shirts because they remind me of a simpler time and also express a part of my identity, even if it isn’t exactly current. I keep clothes because I remember wearing them for specific events, whether it be for concerts, activities with friends, or special dinners. Don’t get me wrong, I gradually filter out clothes that have outworn their use, either they’ve become too dingy from their original color, or there are tears that I myself can’t sew together, or because I’ve simply outgrown the size. Even if one of these reasons convinces me to remove the garment from my usual rotation, I still struggle to throw it away. When my sister was in college (from 2006 to 2010) she had a similar collection of t-shirts that she didn’t wear but kept in a tote anyway. Eventually, she fashioned a quilt out of the graphics on the shirts, and in turn created a new purpose for the same fabric, in addition to some stuffing. It is appalling that the garment industry is as unregulated and as wasteful as it is; with how important clothes are to our cultures, in an ideal world garment makers and seamstresses should be viewed as artists rather than underpaid and disrespected workers forced into unsafe conditions, simply because that is the only job available.