Clothing Clinic
For a more conscious wardrobe
As consumers, we buy more clothes and wear them less often than before. Most clothing ends up in landfills, sometimes unworn. In 2008 the New Zealand Government's waste audit estimated that textiles made up 4% of landfill, but since then global clothing production has almost doubled, and plastic textiles production (like polycotton) has more than doubled too.
This means that every time we wash these items, we’re releasing more and more microfibre plastic pollution into our waterways. We don’t need to go into how bad this is for our marine life - the point is that it is.
We need to rethink our purchasing habits and repair habits, especially in the age of fast fashion.
With that in mind, we’re delighted to share that Artists Barbara Wheeler and Caroline O'Reilly want to teach you the contemporary skills required to manage a conscious wardrobe.
They want to give you the agency to manage your wardrobes better and to develop behaviours that positively address the immense textiles and clothing waste challenge currently facing New Zealand and the planet.
And yes… the garments are as trendy and as wearable, as they are sustainable.
About these workshops.
These workshops are an opportunity for you to breathe life into an item of your clothing. With guidance from Barbara and Caroline, you will learn the skills of clothing design. This includes, but is not limited to, cutting, piecing, sewing (machine and hand), repair and creative visible mending, and laundering.
It is Barbara and Caroline’s mission to make sure you leave with the confidence to maintain garments that:
fit well
are maintained and laundered appropriately
function for the season
are attractive and reflect personal style and
complement other apparel in the personal collection.
The primary focus of these workshops is to arm under 25s with the skills to build and maintain a more sustainable wardrobe.
This workshop is made possible with the support of the Wellington City Creative Communities Scheme.
