Mending
To repair a garment and keep it in active service is to practice the skill of user-ship. It calls upon human senses to diagnose what needs to be done and the right emotional tone to carry it through. Stitching, darning, patching and remodelling oversee a subtle shift in the power relations associated with garments: for the work of mending, unlike the world of production, is about people not machines.
Might have been him
"The shirt that I’m wearing is a work shirt that belonged to my Dad. It’s got a lot of stains on it, there are places where it ripped and probably my Mom repaired it… though it’s a bad shot at repairing; she’s usually better at that sort of stuff… so actually might have been him, they’re iron-on patches. I really like the shirt."
San Francisco - July 2012
Photograph by
Paige Green