A mending mindset to celebrate imperfections
Climate is the fundamental issue of our time. We don’t need more marketing or anxiety. We need established facts and a plan for collective action. - The Carbon Almanac
It’s a natural invitation – for me to become a member of The Carbon Almanac Network and contribute to The Carbon Connection podcast team.
While advocating for human centeredness is central to my being, this advocacy is futile without responding to Mother Earth’s (Pachamama to the Inca shaman) call for us to be a catalyst for change on her behalf.
I’m thrilled to be on the production team of The Carbon Connection and to introduce an episode from the Soil to Soil podcast, which connects the dots in the lifecycle of clothing and material culture. This podcast series is produced by FiberShed, developer of regional fiber systems that build soil & protect the health of our biosphere.
In this episode, Can mending create a cultural shift? (see link below), guests Sonja and Nina Montenegro of The Far Woods talk about clothing being our second skin. Yet we’re disconnected from it – from how it is made and who makes it to what happens to it when we rid ourselves of it.
Here are two alarming facts:
In New York City alone, more than 400 million pounds of clothes are wasted each year.
One dump truck of clothing is sent to a land fill every second around the world.
We need to think more deeply about the ecological impact of clothing and textiles and our relationship with fast fashion, disposable clothing and the dominant culture of newness.
Sonja and Nina Montenegro propose that we adopt mending goggles – that we fix our clothes through mending and patching to extended and renew their life. With this mindset, we can fix other broken and damaged objects as well as our human relationships.
The mending process allows us to slow down and mindfully focus on the rhythm of stitching. We become agents of healing, embracing aging in our clothing and ourselves, and celebrating imperfections.
This isn’t a new movement: Over the centuries, the Japanese have elevated the concept of repair into the arts of Kintsugi and boro.
I was introduced to sustainable and slow fashion through my sister Mary Jaeger, textile and fashion designer, who encouraged me to try my hand at boro. Mending becomes upscaling when I put beads on wool sweaters to hide moth holes and transform a windbreaker jacket into a fabulous skirt.
When I think about what I can do to help the environment, the simple act of mending a pair of socks can be restorative on so many levels AND an opportunity for creative expression.
I hope you too will be inspired by Sonja and Nina.
Here are some resources and sources for things mentioned in the episode:
Listen to the podcast: https://the-carbon-connection.captivate.fm/episode/soil-to-soil-can-mending-create-a-cultural-shift
Explore more connections between fashion and climate: https://thecarbonalmanac.org/connect-the-dots.
Listen to other Fibershed podcasts: https://fibershed.org/podcast/soil-to-soil-podcast-ep-11-can-mending-create-a-cultural-shift-with-sonya-and-nina-montenegro-of-the-far-woods/
The Far Woods https://www.thefarwoods.com/
Mary Jaeger https://www.maryjaeger.com/ and her Instagram Instagram: www.instagram.com/maryjaeger_ny
Watch and learn the hard truths about fast fashion. https://truecostmovie.com/ This is a story about clothing. It’s about the clothes we wear, the people who make them, and the impact the industry is having on our world. The price of clothing has been decreasing for decades, while the human and environmental costs have grown dramatically. The True Cost is a groundbreaking documentary film that pulls back the curtain on the untold story and asks us to consider, who really pays the price for our clothing?