Frome celebrates Sustainable Fashion Week 2024 (SFW) this month, with a wide variety of events and activities centred around the theme of ‘The Power of Repair.’
The town will join cities and communities across the UK and internationally from 20th to 29th September with a packed programme of events from repair, upcycling and alteration workshops.
There will also be talks on regenerative design, the history of repair and growing your own Flax, preloved clothing sales and swaps, to shop window displays through the town that will inspire you to harness the #PowerOfRepair and make clothing and textiles healthier for people and the planet.
With many activities available for free, there is something to cater for all interests. The week starts with a ‘Flax to Fibre’ Workshop on the 20th, with events running through the week into a final weekend that includes Stitch It Don’t Ditch It public mending display in the Westway on Saturday 28 September at 11 am, a Community Clothes Swap run by Frome Wardrobe Collective starting at 12 noon, followed by a How To Mend Your Clothes session at the Boulder Rooms and an evening talk with the inspiring Caroline Till.
You can book into sessions at Millie Moon on mending including one led by Skye from Slow Stitch Club, take part in a Pattern Swap, join Lucy Gundry in Frome Museum’s archives, and hear from fashion director and sustainability expert Scott Wimsett.
Frome’s Charity Shops and secondhand and vintage clothing stores are taking part in a window display trail highlighting the destructive impact of fast fashion, and the importance of buying secondhand and repairing our clothing.
The Sustainable Fashion Week Frome Hub is coordinated by Everyone Needs Pockets, supported by Edventure’s Future Shed as part of the Green & Healthy Frome programme on climate and health, supported by the National Lottery’s Climate Action Funding.
Everyone Needs Pockets Textile Network is an inclusive network of people and enterprises in Frome who collaborate and inspire each other and the wider community to make a change to the unsustainable way we consume and dispose of clothing and textiles.
A member of Everyone Needs Pockets, Tamara Jones, said, “How often does a rip, a stain, a moth hole or a missing button mean your clothes end up in the bin, heading to landfill and incinerators or even deserts, waterways and the open sea? Fashion waste is littering our shared land, impacting the soil, air and water that we depend on.
“Today, we regularly wear less than 30% of the clothing in our wardrobes. Some of these garments will hang unworn due to needing a little mend. We want you to harness the #PowerOfRepair to save your clothing. Repair is a powerful form of resistance in a world of ultra-fast fashion.
“With more and more of us becoming increasingly aware of what we wear, where it comes from and its social and environmental impact, there’s no surprise that Sustainable Fashion Week continues to grow.
“SFW 2024 is delivered by A Single Thread CIC, a non-profit organisation seeking to help reimagine our collective relationship with fashion and grow a movement for change. They partner with a variety of organisations to deliver engaging activity across the UK and internationally and offer creative consultancy for a range of projects.”
Find the full schedule of community programmes now live at https://www.sustainablefashionweek.uk/
