Stitch it don’t ditch it September 2022

Photo credit: Fernando Goncalves (photographer to social movements in our city)

I have been trying to think about how long I have stepped away from the blog… and there are some things I might just revisit even though they happened some time back! We have continued with Stitch It Don’t Ditch it in Adelaide, intermittently. here, it is hosted by Extinction Rebellion and we are making the connection between fast fashion, textile waste and the climate emergency. Plus, some of us like mending!

In that first photo, we are gathering, acknowledging the Kaurna people on whose land we are meeting, and hearing from each person in the circle.

This gathering took place in Slow Fashion September; Secondhand September—because we are not the only ones who recognise that fast fashion needs to change and we need to Stitch It Don’t Ditch It!

We know that textiles, and in particular clothing, contribute massively to global pollution and the climate emergency. We mend because we understand that we are implicated in the system of clothes production that produces unfair working conditions globally.  We mend because Australia is a place where change is needed, in order for to the human, climate and environmental impacts of fast fashion to be addressed.

Photo credit: Fernando Goncalves

Here we are with our chair banners. We are sitting outside H & M in the main pedestrian shopping mall in our city. I’ve taken to opening this event by saying something like:

We come to mend and to be mended

We come to mend our clothes

And to be mended by the process of stitching

We come to sew on our buttons

And we come to be part of the global movement that seeks to mend our damaged earth

We come to darn our socks

And we come to be mended by the company of others who want to mend the broken system that pollutes our earth and exploits humanity in the name of fast fashion.

We come to patch the tears in our pants

And we come to mend our broken hearts in the company of other fine and compassionate humans.

Photo credit: Fernando Goncalves.

And here we are mending. There are chats with passersby as well. But mostly companionable mending.