Discussions & Collective mapping

During the 3 days of the event, we sit together and discuss current and futures opportunities for clothing repair.

We look at the broad social and material landscape that enables repair cultures and different actors that are important for it, even though you might not think about their role at first. For example, schools that teach or do not teach children basic sewing skills, governments and municipalities that do or do not provide support to repair activities and businesses through subsidies or lower tax rates, or fashion brands that do or do not take responsibility for their clothes though providing warranties and repair services.

This landscape is very diverse and interrelated, for example policymakers can have huge influence on how much brands are involved in repair, or media and pop culture can strongly shape the perception of repair and how important and attractive it looks to most people.

We must acknowledge that the current landscape looks too small and disconnected, we practically have too few opportunities and incentives to repair our clothes now and, if we want to overcome current climate and ecological challenges, we need to create many more of them in near future. So, if the current repair landscape looks like islands in Pacific Ocean, surrounded by deep waters of new consumer goods, we (all) need it to be like Alps.

During the 3 days of the event, we start to envision and map Repair Futures - new cultures and infrastructures of repair and reuse that are powered by knowledge, talent, and innovation. In these alternative futures it is fun to repair and upcycle your garments, making them personal and unique, and it is way easier than buying new ones.

This collective exercise will result in an open map of current and future possibilities, designed by Lucie Chaptal/We Made Together and co-created with the participants of the project and the global community of repairers and menders.

You can also contribute to the map throughout the event. Everyone is invited to add their ideas to it.