“Loved Clothes Last” Mending Bar in San Francisco

Each year the United States sends 12.8 million tons of textile waste to landfill. As style turnover has accelerated, so has our appetite for new, trendy clothing. Today we buy 4 times as much clothing as we did two decades ago, yet we get 36% less wear out of our garments before we discard them.

Inspired to empower consumers and keep clothing out of landfill, Fashion Revolution USA and the Sustainable Fashion Alliance partnered with Fibershed and California College of the Arts to present a unique "Mending Bar" experience designed to equip attendees with valuable tools that will help prolong the wearability of their loved pieces of clothing.

Taking place during Fashion Revolution Week in San Francisco, the event featured five mending stations for attendees to enjoy which included boro and sashiko hand mending, machine mending and altering, knit darning, creative embroidery and an upcycle station, sponsored by Bella Notte Linens, where attendees made drawstring bags from a variety of fabric scraps.

See all images here.

Speaking of fabric scraps, the attendees took delight in searching [and in some cases swimming] through a huge pile of fabric scraps donated by Indigo Handloom to use in their repairs and for patching and other creative projects. In addition to light snacks and Revive Kombucha, attendees showed off their renewed and repaired duds in our "Loved Clothes Last" photo booth by Paige Green Photography with gorgeous denim backdrop handmade by Sierra Reading from denim remnants donated by local farmers and unspun denim.

Special thanks to all the artisans who helped make this a possibility: Rebecca Burgess, Jess Daniels, Sierra Reading, Marlie de Swart, Heather Podoll.

Images by Paige Green Photography

About Fashion Revolution USA

To bring awareness of the social and environmental impacts of fast fashion while providing sustainable alternatives, the West Coast Regional branch of Fashion Revolution is highlighting our local sustainable fashion community in a week long schedule of events. For a list of all events for Fashion Revolution Week, please visit fashionrevolution.org.

About FIBERSHED

Fibershed develops regional and regenerative fiber systems on behalf of independent working producers, by expanding opportunities to implement carbon farming, forming catalytic foundations to rebuild regional manufacturing, and through connecting end-users to farms and ranches through public education.

About SUSTAINABLE FASHION ALLIANCE

The Sustainable Fashion Alliance was founded in 2016 to empower small and mid-sized apparel and accessories brands with resources, shared opportunities, strategy sessions and creative avenues to market. We know that in order to enhance our local fashion community, and create impactful momentum in the industry, our voice is more potent in union.

About CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF THE ARTS

CCA attracts promising students from around the world who want to attend one of the best art and design schools in the U.S. We educate talented, visionary students to become versatile makers with inventive solutions to advance culture and society.

About BELLA NOTTE LINENS

For over two decades, California-based Bella Notte Linens has preserved a passion for producing beautiful bedding, consciously designed with natural and sustainable fibers like organic cotton, linen, silk and Tencel®. All Bella Notte Linens pieces are responsibly cut, sewn and hand dyed-to-order in Novato, California.