mend.IT: Contribution to Fashion for Future exhibition in Bolzano, Italy.

Mend.IT is an educational system based on environmental and social sustainability principles, combining the ideology of repair and redesigned methods of mending competencies acquisition. The overall research was based on design ethnography and wardrobe studies in two different social contexts. The study has demonstrated that despite the recent upsurge of mending, both competencies and material artefacts facilitating the enactment of mending practices are missing. Moreover, while in the past, mending was taught in schools, today, this learning mainly occurs within the framework of participatory workshops, which have a sporadic nature and do not allow a systemic change. On these premises, I have designed a concept of a mending lab, which enables users to learn how to increase the lifespan of clothing by repairing and maintaining their garments. The learning within this framework occurs within a social and collaborative structure and is facilitated by redesigned multifunctional mending tools. The tools were designed according to sustainable design criteria, with the idea that everyone would have the possibility to create their mending tools by downloading the 3D files and printing them in the mending lab. The overall aim of the project is to reduce the acquisition and disposal of fashion products and reduce both pre-consumer and post-consumer waste.