*In a very distant newsletter, we’ve told you what we are doing as a part of the circular economy. We called it the three Re’s:
Re-use
Re-air
Re-cycle
In this blog, I want to tell you more about repairing clothing. Why it is important and how you can easily do it yourself even at home with your own clothing. But first, let us dive into what we do here at Red Orka.
The first and one of the most important things to consider is the product itself. The product has to be of good quality in order to make a good repair and give it extra life. This is why we only work with the best materials for our own brands and chose brands that do the same as Maed for mini in Amsterdam or Mini Rodini from Sweden.
Then it's a matter of what is needed to fix - is it a zipper, a button or did some seams get loose? When we have spotted the location or thing that needs to be fixed, we just start with needle and yarn that match the item and start sewing.
The secret is to not rush and take time and your full attention to sew things together. You’ll be surprised how little you will notice that something has been fixed.
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Of course, there are items that are damaged quite a bit and cannot be fixed only with a needle and yarn. What we do then is patch them and make something creative and fun out of it. In Japan (the country of quality), something that has been fixed has more value. They call it Kintsugi, and this is what we do here at Red Orka every day.
We know that every year 92,000,000 tones of clothing lands on landfills, and through fixing clothing, we can work towards reducing this number.
Now this is what we do at Red Orka, and you can, of course, do it for yourself. Let us give you an example from our founder, Erik.
You all have seen them or experienced them yourself. Holes in the socks.Â
They come, and they get bigger the more you wear them. And often it happens with the socks one likes the most. Erik has found for himself that fixing these holes reduces his wear and tear of socks.Try it for yourself. Get one item out of your closet which you wanted to wear, but you couldn't because it has a hole, loose bottom, or something else. Fix it, and you'll see how happy you'll get. It's a certainty for a dopamine boost.
Best,
Erik