My go-to jacket ripped right before a big meetup last weekend

I was putting on my favorite canvas chore coat, the one I've had for five years, and the entire left sleeve seam gave out from the shoulder down. It happened Saturday morning, and I was supposed to meet friends in an hour. I ended up grabbing a needle and some heavy-duty thread and did a quick, visible repair with bright orange stitching just to hold it together. Honestly, the rough fix looked kind of cool and got more compliments than the jacket ever did before. It's made me think about designing workwear that celebrates visible mending as part of the style from the start. Has anyone else tried incorporating repair details into their initial designs?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_julia24d ago

Oh man, that's the best kind of accident. My own attempts at visible mending look less like cool design and more like a kindergartner's art project. I tried patching some jeans with an old bandana, and the stitching is so wobbly it looks like the pants are crying red plaid tears. I've got a sweater where I fixed a hole with yarn that was almost the right color, so now it just looks like a weird, lumpy birthmark. Your idea makes way more sense, building it in so the repairs look like they belong there, not like a clumsy afterthought.

reese_ward5024d ago

Totally get what you mean, @the_julia. I saw someone turn a ripped knee into a whole embroidered galaxy with little stars, and it looked planned from the start. Another friend patched a cardigan elbow with leather and did a simple running stitch around it, so it looks like a cool detail, not a fix. It's all about making the first stitch part of the design, not just trying to hide it.

seth_carr12d ago

Honestly, I read an article about that exact thing, calling it "celebrating the flaw" instead of hiding it. Makes so much more sense.