Edmonton menders seek sustainability through clothing repair
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In Edmonton, Alberta, dozens of people attended a monthly clothing repair event at the University of Alberta’s Human Ecology Clothing Repair Café to mend and modify their clothes.
Samantha Barrios Mendoza, the event co-ordinator, explained the gatherings have occurred monthly for five years, with attendance increasing recently as people face financial challenges. Attendees brought clothing with holes or needing resizing, and the event provided supplies like needles, thread, and fabric.
The menders see repairing clothes as a way to fight against fast fashion, which generates enormous amounts of textile waste globally, roughly the equivalent of a garbage truck of material being dumped every second. Pearce Carpenter, an attendee, described mending as “one little quiet act of rebellion” against the cycle of quickly produced, cheap clothing. Beyond reducing waste and saving money, participants find personal meaning in the process.
People have repaired cherished items like wedding dresses and created new pieces from old baby clothes. Tacjana Maj-Pfleger shared her belief that good clothing doesn’t need to be new, and Barrios Mendoza noted that mending allows people to connect with the history of their garments and track their developing skills.
