01. Visible mending

"...Visible mending makes a feature out of fixing worn or damaged fabric. According to Charlotte Jenner, who runs (opens in new tab), a crafting retreat in the New Forest, this is due to a backlash against the way we consume.

"People seem to want to mend clothes as they are reading more about the downside of 'fast fashion'," she says, "both in terms of using up the resources of the planet and also the poor treatment and conditions that many of the workers have to tolerate when making clothes for our consumption."

(opens in new tab), a repair champion who runs an established (opens in new tab), agrees that consumption culture has paved the way for the craft's popularity. "Clearly it's the craving for the handmade and unique in our culture, owing to the metastasising cancer of mass production," she says.

"If everything's the same, of course we start to want a different look, and nothing shows the individual hand more than visible mending."

How has this craft trend affected professional design? According to Sekules, whose book MEND! A Refashioning Manual and Manifesto will be published by Penguin in Summer 2020, visible mending has had a huge impact. She's seen a general swing to embellishment and detail in fashion design that's a reflection of visible mending...."