The personal [class] politics at play when mending clothes and tending to textiles in a time of crisis

Lewis Scott

This paper involves a practice-based and theoretical exploration of the act of mending one’s own clothing. This time of widespread lock-downs, for many but not all people, involves staying indoors and slowing down. For some, there is more time to reflect which presents opportunities to get on with all those textile/clothing repair jobs that may have been neglected. However, while being at home for long periods of time there may also be the enticing prospect of brand-new fashion being readily available at your fingertips, via online shopping. Social media’s multitude of platforms are an enticer for people to display their new wears . Online shopping is nothing new but in this time of sustained confinement, it is magnified. This could feed an argument that taking the time to mend already owned clothing rather than replace it with new fast-fashion has the potential to be an anti-capitalist act. Through documenting the various repair-jobs that I make to my own pieces of clothing which I have neglected in previous years, I draw on the corresponding history of the make-do-and-mend generation, and theories concerning textiles, the arts, and class politics. In doing so, I ask if/how mending clothes and tending to textiles at home can be a form of anti-capitalist protest, and a way to connect to memories of previous times associated with “old” garments.Overall, and based on auto-ethnographic reflections, this piece examines the intricate personal politics that can be at play amid the perceived simplicity of repairing clothes at home.

'In Kind': A Dialogue on Repair

Angela Maddock

'In Kind' is a postal art project initiated during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic from my home in South Wales. It grew from a desire to forge new relationships at a time when distance mattered -still matters - more than proximity. An invitation to send me thread made things that needed fixing. Jeans, socks, sweaters, cardigans, soft toys. I repair in exchange for stories, postage paid and permission to share. Llio’s threadbare cashmere sweater, gifted by her mum. Alice’s worn through cycle glove;a Christmas gift that marked the last holiday shared with her dad. Chris’s socks, the first pair knitted by his wife. Most challenging of all, Maria’s childhood doll, Nenna. Hand knitted fifty years earlier by a mother living in rural poverty in Cornwall. A childhood companion turned feast for mice and moth. Nenna arrived with insides spilling, and a note from Maria, ‘she mirrors my holey being, both damaged and stretched’. So began a story as deep and long as it is wide. Many hours spent with Nenna at my lap, all of the time holding Maria and her expectations in mind. In Kind marks a return to age old domestic skills of darning. A quiet project of care and respect, of exchange and gifting, of trust and time taken – lots of time taken – and repair. In all this slow time,room for reflection. In Kind is a very particular holding and bringing together at a time when so much has been lost. An act of hope.