So perhaps it is surprising just how popular mended style is proving among retailers, with brands from Ralph Lauren to ultra-fast-fashion firm Shein currently selling stitched and patched garments, albeit in both of those cases brand new off the peg.
Other High Street chains are adopting a more authentic approach, offering in-house repairs and workshops.
“We want to give customers practical ways to extend the life of the clothes they already love, rather than simply replacing them,” says Uniqlo’s head of sustainability, Maria Ledous.
Primark, often seen as a fast-fashion retailer due to its lower prices, has also joined the trend.
“We don’t think that affordability and durability should be opposites,” says Vicki Swain, the brand’s longevity lead.
Outdoor brand Finisterre says around a fifth of the mends it provides for customers are designed to be eye-catching, while premium artisan clothing store Toast says around a third of customers go for that option.
Part of the “magic” is that customers can bring in a garment and “choose what they’d like it to become next”, says Toast chief executive Suzie de Rohan Willner.
Toast’s repair services are free, but off-the-peg “renewed” pieces fetch higher prices than the originals to reflect their unique character.
Levi’s, which boasts probably the longest tradition of being fixed up by its fans using anything from rhinestones to fringed cuffs, is rolling out a workshop programme this year.
The firm says its research shows younger customers in particular want to repair more but don’t know how.
For now, Levi’s’ workshops focus on traditional mending skills, such as sewing on a button and hemming, rather than visible mends, and at a recent launch event in London, that seemed to be what its Gen Z participants were looking for.
“I’m from East London. If you have holes in your clothes people are like ‘Ha ha! You’re poor!’,” says 16-year-old school student Bianca.
Theo, 19, says he’d rather learn how to mend without it showing.
“I would want [the jeans] to look how I originally bought them,” he says.
He has a side hustle selling clothes at car boot sales and thinks traditional repair skills would make it more lucrative.
His friend Nicholas, also 19, says most people want to look “fresh”.
“No-one wants to look like they came out of a dumpster,” he says.
Still, Paul Dillinger, Levi’s head of global design innovation, thinks more creative repairs will win them over as they pick up more skills.
“No-one has time for that perfect ‘straight from the shop’ thing. That’s not cool.
“People crave agency,” he says. “Mending is a demonstration of humanity: it’s not a mustard stain, it’s a memory of a great day in the ballpark.”
