How to extend the life of your clothes
With the cost of living crisis still hanging over us, we’re looking at simple ways to save money - and one easy win is to give our clothes some love. A study by Thought fashion brand found that one in seven Brits throws their clothes in the bin if they become damaged - which is more than 8 million of us. That’s costing us £140 million as a nation every year. So we’ve put together some top tips on the best way to take care of our clothes and your wallet.
It’s a mantra of the 2020s: the most sustainable clothes are the ones you already have in your cupboard. But clothes have a habit of wearing out. So what are the best ways to take care of your clothes so that you can extend their time in your wardrobe - or be passed or sold on to someone else?
Visible mending
In a world that so often prizes the new, alongside the quest for perfection, the Japanese art of kintsugi, or “joining with gold”, is a beautiful riposte. Lovingly piecing together broken pottery, and adorning it with gold running through its cracks, Japanese artists rework the pots as a symbolic celebration of the healing of the many scars and fault lines that run through our lives. It is a reminder of how beauty can emerge from even the most shattering experiences.
This idea has given rise to the latest trend for visibly mending your clothes by embroidering beautiful flowers, stars and other designs over any holes, snags or rips. Collingwood-Norris do some utterly beautiful bespoke work – each works of art in their own right.
If you’d like to do it yourself, Clothes Doctor* offer free online mending workshops and there are plenty of books available at World of Books (Amazon’s cooler and more sustainable cousin), like Katrina Rodabaugh’s ‘Mending Matters’. Head over to @georgiadck or follow the hashtag #visiblemending on Instagram for some inspiration.
If you’ve bought a jumper from Nearly New Cashmere*, a gorgous brand that restores and recycles cashmere, all you have to do is pop it in the post to have it mended, visibly or invisibly, and sent as good (or better!) than the day you bought it.
Clothes Doctor* are dedicated to cleaning, protecting, and repairing clothes the way our grandparents did.
Invisible mending
If you’d rather go down the more conventional route of invisible mending, then Clothes Doctor* also offer a door-to-door repairs and alterations service. They’ll pick your item up, send it off to a lovely seamstress in Cornwall and have it straight back to you, all in environmentally friendly, reusable canvas bags. Clothes Doctor also offer leather restoration, fur rehydration and anti-moth treatments – so everything in your wardrobe is covered. SOJO does the same thing, and at just as competitive prices - a crotch rip repair starts from just £10.
Or you might want to join the growing trend for DIY invisible mending. For some top tips on how to get handy with a needle, check out this YouTuber, Repair What You Wear.
Our sustainable stylist, Rosanna, is the mistress of wardrobe care. (Photo credit: Vicki Knight)
Creating seasonal edits
At Green Salon, we’re all about a little bit of luxury. Our stylist, Rosanna, helps clients create beautiful bijoux wardrobes by only hanging up your clothes for each season. This spring, she’s reminding us to fold up our jumpers and winter clothes and carefully pack them away with lavender bags and moth balls until the autumn. You don’t have to work with her to be inspired by her ideas for hanging clothes as if you were decorating a boutique, and folding colourful scarves and decorative jewellery to make getting dressed in the morning feel like a treat not a chore.
Clothes care
Rosanna has also taught us a lot about general clothes maintenence. Just like us, the better we take care of our clothes, the longer they last. Brora* do a fantastic clothes care range for your jumpers including combs, cedar balls and cashmere shampoo. For those of us who need a little more high tech help, Steamery offer a marvellous ‘fabric shaver’, or debobbler for the uninitiated. You can also use a lint-remover to get rid of unwanted fuzzies to revamp your jumpers and scarves.
The key to washing clothes is to keep things gentle. Washing your clothes on low, around 30°C, and minimising the use of the tumble dryer helps extend the life of your clothes and keep them in tip top condition for as long as possible. Using the ecoegg in your washing machine is an easy money and planet saver and is kind to your clothes. Or using a gentler detergent, such as one from Bower Collective* or Eco-Homemaker*, can also help prevent fabrics wearing out over time.
We recommend sponging off dirt spots where you can and washing your clothes less often, as washing too often breaks down the fabric. Another top tip is to avoid fabric conditioner and use woollen balls, scented with essential oils, instead. When you are washing clothes, try popping them in a GuppyFriend*, which not only stops harmful microfibres from entering our waterways, but also protects your clothes from the rough and tumble of the washing machine.
With just a little bit of extra care, your clothes can continue to look gorgeous for years to come.
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