STUDENTS from Edventure Frome are launching a new start-up, named Indigo, on 30th March, focusing on jeans repair.
They are testing their idea with a denim repair pop-up on 19th March at RISE at the Rye Bakery, from 11am to 2pm (Whittox Lane, Frome, BA11 3BY).
They will be offering a quick and easy jeans repair service where you can breathe new life into your well-loved jeans. In the future, Indigo will host regular repair pop-ups and offer training in denim repair that will lead to future employment. They say, “We hope to be a beacon of fun, inclusive repair in Frome – when someone in town rips or damages their jeans, we want to be the first option they think about.
“Denim production has a large environmental footprint: it takes 2,900 L of water to make a single pair of jeans, and, on top of that, there are 2.16 million tons of waste jeans in Western Europe alone, of which less than half is recycled.
“Furthermore, we are consuming clothing faster and faster. An average person in the U.K. buys 60% more clothes and keeps them for half as long, when compared to 15 years ago, and they throw out 3.1 kg of textiles per year. By normalising repair as the first choice for damaged jeans, we hope to slow this trend down and reduce the impact of denim production on the environment.
“The name, Indigo, comes from the blue dye used in denim production, but it is also a nod to Frome’s rich history of dyeing and weaving. Woad, a plant whose leaves are a source of indigo dye, was grown in Frome for hundreds of years to supply the town’s textile makers with rich, vibrant blue dyes.”
The students hope that Indigo will be a hub of mending, making, and learning that can offer fairly paid and sustainable employment to seamsters, as well as training and upskilling to those who are interested in slow fashion.
