David Byrne's Reasons to be Cheerful

Resisting Fast Fashion Through Visible Mending

by Kaja Šeruga

April 25, 2025

"The Edinburgh Street Stitchers, as they call themselves, are part of a growing movement that is reclaiming the ancient art of mending. Historically, mending was done in private and in ways that concealed, rather than announced, the repair. Choosing instead to mend visibly — whether through the color of the stitching or by doing it in a public location — is a statement and a conversation starter.

“You are clearly stating that you have kept this from a landfill,” says Kate Sekules, a mender who teaches fashion history at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and is pursuing a PhD in the history and theory of mending. “It’s also got the advantage of making everything you own unique and special. And when you’ve invested time and energy and thought and craft into your clothing, you value it so much more.”

The term “fast fashion” was coined by the New York Times in 1989 to describe Zara’s business model, which turned a designer’s idea into a garment available to consumers in only 15 days. Today’s ultra-fast fashion retailers have further accelerated the pace of production: Shein, for example, has created 52 micro-seasons per year and adds up to 10,000 items to its website each day. With plummeting prices and a rising throwaway culture, by 2014, people were buying 60 percent more clothes than at the turn of the millennium, and keeping them for only half as long.

Today the fashion industry is responsible for 92 million metric tons of textile waste annually, and the dyeing and finishing of textiles causes 20 percent of industrial water pollution. Due to energy-intensive production and long supply chains, the apparel industry is responsible for eight to 10 percent of global carbon emissions — more than aviation and shipping combined...."

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