Press Release

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Here is a press release for the next coordinated Street Stitching action on 14th September. 
Please feel free to copy and paste it into an email to notify your local newspapers of our action
​and spread the word.​

Street Stitching -
bringing the joy and necessity of garment repair to the streets during Sustainable Fashion Week 11th-19th September 2021
by Suzi Warren

Street Stitching is an act of joyful disruption in areas of fast fashion stores, that demonstrates the pleasure and need of garment repair in places where consumers are already thinking about replacing or adding to their wardrobe. 

In high streets across the UK and around the world, people will form lines of chairs along the centre of their high streets to sit and mend. Each Street Stitcher will have a hand made chair-banner with the hashtag #stitchitdontditchit and a QR code linking to free online repair demos for anyone interested. 

This is not a protest. It is an encouragement. A way of showing what we’d like more of rather than a protest about what we want less of. The action will last for an hour and is a co-ordinated, visually-cohesive happening that will take place on the same day at the same time in dozens of towns and cities in the UK and around the world. Anyone can join the line. Anyone can form their own.

This happy rebellion was devised in response to something Orsola de Castro said about how the reputation of fast fashion items as 'cheap tat' is accelerating their fate as disposable and designed to be dumped. (Orsola is the founder of Fashion Revolution and author of Loved Clothes Last). Originally I sat alone outside Primark in Oxford Street fixing the sleeve of an old cardie. Within a few weeks I had been joined by hundreds of people who found that contemplative, meditative repair was the best way they could be heard without speaking. The collective voice that is now gathering is loud, vast and wonderful. 

We first sat on the 14th June to tie in with Circular Economy Week. In 16 different cities from Aldershot to Adelaide, connected by our line formation, our chair banners and our silent absorption in our work. Some areas had 30 stitchers (the maximum legal amount under covid for an outside gathering) and some places had just one. But the beauty of this action is that one person can make a huge impact. By simply doing something publicly that would normally be done at home, it rouses curiosity and it only needs one person to change another person's mind.

Everyone who joined in said how liberating, restorative and purposeful it was. Connections and friendships were made, minds were altered. All want to do it again. Even (in fact especially those) who felt nervous about inviting public scrutiny. After a few minutes of shakily trying to thread a needle, they soon became lost in their work and relaxed. 

This is a movement for anyone who feels powerless against the reckless greed of big business and thinks there is little they can do to make an impact. They can take a needle, a thread, a sock and a calm mind and join a line. Become a stitch in a big human mend. 

In just a month I have found an incredible community of people who are passionate about sustainability, wise about the mental health benefits of repair, and want to channel the fear they may have towards the future of our race and the planet, into a connected act of power and peace. Japan, USA, Canada, Portugal, France, Germany. Australia, Sweden, Spain and South Africa have now joined the line. This is about intension, not skill. Some of the stitchers will be veterans, some will be complete beginners. Young, old, male, female, novice or pro, all are welcome, needed. and invite to sit and stitch against unconscious shopping habits.  If there was ever a time for this action, that time is here. 

Please contact [email protected] or more information or visit @streetstitching on instagram to see the beautiful gallery of #stitchitdontditchit banners or suzi's own page at @twistedtwee.

Press coverage

 Worthing Herald
18th June 2021
Positive day of action in Worthing to highlight importance of mending clothes, instead of throwing them away written by Jennifer Logan

Metro
10 August 2021
I want you to start mending your clothes instead of throwing them awaymetro.co.uk/2021/08/09/i-want-you-to-start-mending-your-clothes-instead-of-throwing-them-away-14983522/ Written by Suzi Warren

​Islington Gazette
22nd June 2021
Highbury woman repairs clothes outside H&M in stand against fast fashion written by Emma Bartholomew

I News
2nd June 2021
Craftivists host Street Stitching event for more sustainable relationship between shoppers and fast fashion written by Serina Sandhu






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That's Not My Age 
september 13th 2021
Stitch it Don't Ditch it for Sustainable Fashion Week  
https://thatsnotmyage.com/lifestyle/stitch-it-dont-ditch-it-for-sustainable-fashion-week/
Written by Alyson Welsh

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