Our first workshop in the ‘Wear & Care’ Community Repair Series at our Brunswick Research Studio. Image: RMIT PlaceLab.
‘Wear & Care’ Community Repair Series
Our ‘Wear & Care’ Research Project launched with a collaboration between RMIT PlaceLab Brunswick and Repair Cafe at RMIT from the School of Fashion & Textiles to deliver the ‘Wear & Care’ Community Repair Series. On May 2nd 2023, our Brunswick team kicked off with the first session in the six-part series of pop-up community repair sessions held weekly across May and June at our Brunswick Research Studio.
Week 1 of the Series commenced with a broad clothing repair session, as part of the RMIT Sustainability Week program, bringing together the local community with RMIT researchers, staff and students to build their skills with guidance from RMIT repairers and local mending experts. From Week 2, each workshop in the Series focused on a different aspect of clothes mending, alterations and embellishment. Participating menders were welcome to attend any or all of the sessions to learn about rips and holes, fastenings and alterations, darning and knitwear, denim repair and altering your T-shirts. Attendees also had the opportunity to participate in a research survey and have their completed repairs photo documented, contributing to research into garment longevity and durability by the Repair Cafe at RMIT team – Georgia McCorkill, Rebecca Van Amber and Julia English.
A huge thank you to all who attended, guided and repaired with us across the workshops, with special mentions to Tamara Russell and Sang Thai, who facilitated Weeks 4 and 6 workshops respectively, and Dr. Saniyat Islam, Alicja Kuzmycz, Deborah Wills-Ives, Carey Walden and Jessie McClure.
We’ve gathered a collection of photographs captured across the ‘Wear & Care’ Community Repair Series below. Enjoy!
Menders and expert repairers during the Week 1 workshop for our ‘Wear & Care’ Community Repair Series. Images: RMIT PlaceLab.
Dress mending during the Week 1 workshop for our ‘Wear & Care’ Community Repair Series. Images: RMIT PlaceLab.
Menders and expert repairers during the Week 2 workshop ‘Rips and Holes’ for our ‘Wear & Care’ Community Repair Series. Images: RMIT PlaceLab.
Our Week 3 workshop ‘Fastenings and Alterations’ as part of our ‘Wear & Care’ Community Repair Series. Image: RMIT PlaceLab.
Menders and repair experts at our Week 3 workshop ‘Fastenings and Alterations’ during the ‘Wear & Care’ Community Repair Series. Image: RMIT PlaceLab.
Local repair expert and textile artist, Tamara Russell, facilitating the Week 4 workshop ‘Darning and Knitwear’ as part of the ‘Wear & Care’ Community Repair Series. Image: RMIT PlaceLab.
Our Week 4 workshop ‘Darning and Knitwear’ as part of the ‘Wear & Care’ Community Repair Series. Image: RMIT PlaceLab.
Menders practicing Sashiko during our Week 5 workshop ‘Denim Repair’ as part of the ‘Wear & Care’ Community Repair Series. Image: RMIT PlaceLab.
RMIT School of Fashion and Textiles lecturer, Sang Thai, facilitating the Week 6 workshop ‘Alter Your Tee’ as part of the ‘Wear & Care’ Community Repair Series. Image: RMIT PlaceLab.