Chain stores should offer 'remake and mend' facilities says report

Spaces to remake and mend clothes would bring much-needed life back into shopping centres and high streets, a new study by Exeter academics says.

Efforts to wean people away from fast fashion should go beyond sewing workshops in community halls and art spaces.

Chain stores should include stations for mending and modifying clothing and sell more garments designed to be durable and adaptable, experts have urged.

Researchers ran workshops which provided participants with space, support and equipment to help them learn new skills to repair and remake clothing. They found this helped people make more sustainable choices.

Participants were asked to do an audit of their wardrobes and were interviewed in front of them at the start and end of the project. They took part in informal discussions with researchers, as well as keeping reflective diaries.

At the end of the process participants thought considerably more deeply about their clothes, purchasing and engaged in a more ethical and environmentally-oriented way.

Their preferred style remained relatively fixed and buying habits were still also based on their budgets.

The study, by Clare Saunders, Anjia Barbieri, Jodie West and Joanie Willett from the University of Exeter, Irene Griffin, from Falmouth University, Fiona Hackney, from Manchester Metropolitan University, Katie J. Hill from Northumbria University, is published in the journal Sustainability.