Sugru ❤️ October 2022
NEWS & STORIES ABOUT REPAIR AND SUSTAINABILITY THAT WE'RE ABSOLUTELY ADORING THIS MONTH.
Royal visit to The Repair Shop
To mark 100 years of the BBC, a special episode of The Repair Shop will air on 26th October, where the then-Prince of Wales pays a visit to Jay Blades and his team of expert repairers. The episode will feature the repair of an 18th-century clock, and pottery made for Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee. Exciting stuff! Put it in your diaries folks.
Watercolour wisdom
We're currently obsessed with blogger and illustrator @rachelraisin's wonderful watercolour illustrations of climate awareness and sustainability tips! Her paintings are a great reminder of the many little habits we can all adopt into our lives to make a positive difference to our planet. We highly recommend hitting ‘follow’ for these handy tips to pop up in your feed!
Mend it like Uniqlo
Mending holes, replacing zips and sewing on buttons for your Uniqlo clothing, are just some of the repairs you can expect to pay for when you next visit the RE.UNIQLO Repair Studio in Uniqlo's Regent Street flagship store in London. This comes as part of a global initiative to encourage customers to repair, reuse and recycle more, with plans to further expand into other stores across the UK and Europe. So keep a lookout for one opening in your nearest store.
Alternatively, Uniqlo also has lots of handy how-to guides and clothing care tips on their site too!
The shoes live on
Sustainability focused fashion designer, Patrick McDowell recently teamed up with luxury after-care service The Restory to redesign and restore 25 pairs of vintage shoes for the unveiling of Patrick’s latest fashion collection.
Patrick and the team sourced all 25 pairs of shoes second-hand before they were passed onto The Restory team for cleaning, repairs and new additions to the original designs.
The Restory said, “This is a defining moment for circular fashion, proving that fashion can be circular and sustainable while being luxury, high quality and couture. The incorporation of restored footwear in Patrick’s presentation demonstrates that fashion can evolve in an exciting and responsible way, embracing innovation to repair and protect vintage designs.”
Take a look at a stunning restoration here!
Help with housing
Big names like IKEA and B&Q are teaming up with the charity Shelter, to combat the rise in homelessness in the UK. Through a series of projects and initiatives, including training workers to become ‘Life at Home Experts’, IKEA promise to help half a million people to have a better life at home by the year 2030.
"We want to have a positive impact on the world. Our partnership with Shelter will help us do that by providing support to the millions of people across the UK that do not currently have a place to call home." - Peter Jelkeby, Country Retail Manager and Chief Sustainability Officer, IKEA UK & Ireland.
Earlier this month, B&Q stores across the UK held a charity event for Shelter, that raised £220k in one weekend alone! This is part of B&Q's pledge to donate one million pounds by January 2023. Fantastic work! 👏
Fixing fun has come to Camden
Heard of the Fixing Factory? They're a group of brilliant fixers that help people by repairing their broken things and teaching them new skills. And thanks to funding from the National Lottery, they've just opened up their second physical Fixing Factory in Camden (the first being in Brent). Their mission is to:
"Empower local communities by teaching them new repair skills, slash carbon emissions by diverting items from waste, and close the digital divide by providing equal access to devices"
And their hope is to open a Fixing Factory on every high street. We love to hear it! If you happen to be in the area, pop in and pay them a visit. 😊
Image taken by our friends at The Restart Project.
Caring for Repairing
If you happen to be in or around Kilbeggan in Ireland this Saturday 5th Nov 2022, you'll be delighted to hear that you can join our very own Sugru founder Jane, as she talks all things Sugru with Teresa Dillon at the Caring for Repairing Exhibition & Féile by Repair Acts, Ireland. The exhibition, taking place between Thursday 3rd – Sunday 6th Nov, 2022, will also host a series of brilliant mending and fixing workshops, guest talks, and live performances, including the premiere of ‘Turning the Collar’ a documentary on professional repair practices. Head on down if you can!
Platform 21's Repair Manifesto
Platform21 was a design platform based in Amsterdam, with the goal of 'influencing the relationship between user and product.' In 2009, they released a Repair Manifesto, which was a call to designers to think of different repair methods, and to produce new items with repair in mind.
A source of inspiration to many, including Woolfiller founder Heleen Klopper, The Repair Cafe, and Sugru founder Jane, the Repair Manifesto has been downloaded over 1 million times, and continues to inspire today!
Download your copy here.
