In a joint exploration, Iryna Kucher and Louise Ravnløkke wanted to explore how design can support and facilitate engagements with mending. In this way, the exploration was built on insights from Iryna’s PhD research on mending practices and Louise's PhD dissertation on how designers can engage users in a design process through tangible dialogue tools. Together Iryna and Louise developed a workshop set-up to facilitate peoples’ engagements with mending.

Since the establishment of the Repair Café Foundation in the Netherlands in 2012, we have witnessed growth in repair cafés as a part of a “fixer movement” on a European level. Likewise, craft practitioners are creating awareness of creative engagements with mending techniques which are shared in viral realms and a growing number of inspirational books. At a grassroots level, these initiatives are showing a shift of interest moving away from passive consumption towards actions on longevity on the level of the wearer and owner of garments. Building further on the wave of this movement, Iryna and Louise wanted to further explore how design can contribute to even more mending engagements.

This exploration centres around two participatory mending workshops, which were designed to open a dialogue on how design might support mending practices. The setting of both workshops was based on participatory textile-making – an emerging methodology, which combines the familiarity and flexibility of textile practices and privileging the social encounter as a space of mutual learning, sharing experiences, and strengthening shared interests.

The workshops occurred in two different settings. However, they had the common denominator of asking participants to bring along one garment to mend, which had damages of holes, tears, or stains. Also, the workshop provided participants with all the necessary equipment and textile materials for their engagements with mending.

The first workshop took place on the 17th of August 2021, on the occasion of the Nordic Design Research Conference (NORDES). Due to the Covid19 pandemic, it was held in an online format. The second workshop took place on the 3rd of September 2021, at the Climate Summit (Klimafolkemødet) in Middelfart in Denmark.

Find out more about the co-explorative workshops and engagements with mending in the publications The Mending Concepts Booklet, Designing Engagements with Mending practices, and Textile Aesthetic dialogues of garment mending.

Related Sources

Ravnløkke, L., 2023, “Textile Aesthetic dialogues of garment mending.” In Conference Proceedings 5th PLATE (Product Lifetime And The Environment), edt. By Niinimäki, K. & Kirsti, C., Espoo, Finland - 31 May - 2 June 2023, pp. 835-42. https://www.plateconference.org/call-for-contributions-2/

Kucher, I. & Ravnløkke, L., 2023, “Designing Engagements with Mending Practices.” In The Design School in Green Transition, edited by Ravnløkke, L. & Krog Petersen, M. Design School Kolding, Denmark. https://www.designforplanet.dk/projects/mending-concepts/

Ravnløkke, L. & Kucher, I., 2021, “The Mending Concepts Booklet.” Design School Kolding, pp. 1-21. https://www.designforplanet.dk/projects/mending-concepts/

Ravnløkke, L. & Kucher, I., 2021, “Designing Scales of Domestic Mending in Fashion.” In Conference Proceedings No 9: NORDES Conference 2021: Matters of Scale, ISSN 1604-9705. www.nordes.org

https://www.designforplanet.dk/projects/mending-concepts/