Find Happiness in Darning
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Welcome to June.
To lessen our impact on the environment and curb throwaway consumerism, we need to learn how to repair things, and do it often. When it comes to clothes and fashion, darning can be one way to do so. It can also be a medium for self expression. Forget about any outdated gender prejudices. Anyone can do it.
Have you used your time in lockdwon to repair something? Let me know on twitter or just hit reply to this email.
Cheers from London,
gian
Find Happiness in Darning
Hikaru Noguchi was born and raised in Japan, where she studied graphic design. Despite her parents being involved with knitting, she became a professional textile designer and discovered darning in England. While studying at London’s Middlesex University, Hikaru had a part-time job at the famous Liberty department store. There she noticed that furnishing fabrics were a common thing, as British culture embraces the upholstering of one’s favourite family furniture to give them new life. This inspired the final work for her textile course, where she created knitted fabric to upholster used furniture picked up from car boot sales. Hikaru’s degree show was so successful that it generated collaborations with brands like Tom Dixon and Habitat. A few years later, she transitioned to making smaller items like cushions and scarves, which also did very well, generating orders from retailers like Barneys New York.
Hikaru’s business kept on growing until nine-eleven 2001, when orders from abroad plummeted. By then she had become disenchanted with how the fashion industry had turned into a throwaway affair, and not exciting enough. As designs and colours couldn’t be used from one collection to the next, leftover yarn accumulated at the small factories that were producing her items. The final drop was when it was suggested that she should dispose of it as industrial waste: “I thought it was wrong to throw it away.”
Three life-changing events altered her perception of mending. First came a move to South Africa with her husband and children. Living in a small town meant that the availability to buy nice clothing was greatly reduced compared to Tokyo or London. It made her take care more of the belongings that she liked because it would be difficult to replace them.
Second was the encounter with textile artist Rachael Matthews who introduced Noguchi to the use of darning mushrooms, a tool for mending and not a hallucinogenic substance. The view of a sweater that Matthews had patched up time and time again using colourful yarn challenged Hikaru’s understanding of repairs. Until then, she believed that you had to make the damage become invisible, the repaired object needed to look like brand new. Hikaru started darning her own clothes.
Third, she noticed that many of her old customers loved her knitted designs like scarves, gloves, and hats so much, that they kept on using them despite starting to show the passing of time. Out of guilt, she decided to guarantee a permanent repair service for them. Now a common practice by some fashion brands, at the time people thought it was ludicrous. The logic was that as a business person, she should encourage customers to buy more of her stuff, not less of it. There was no stopping her: “This was my standard and something I wanted to do.”
Soon after, during her frequent trips to Tokyo, Hikaru started teaching darning workshops. At first people didn’t get it, but with time — in part thanks to the Marie Kondo effect — the workshops became more popular. Participants would bring clothes from a deceased partner, a favourite item, or children’s clothes. Often the workshop fees would be more than the cost of just replacing the garment, but they still wanted to spend time and effort doing it. In Japan you don’t have charity shops to take your old clothes to. Houses are small, and there’s the stress generated by the pressure to throw things away, and the love of shopping. “My approach is, if you can’t throw things away because they carry a lot of stories, you can darn them and keep them for longer. After you feel you had enough conversation with that late husband’s sweater you can finally say goodbye to it. Darning becomes a good way to say hello and goodbye.”
Darning can be like kintsugi — the art of repairing broken ceramics using lacquer and gold powder. The object becomes more beautiful by celebrating a life well lived. But Hikaru warns us that visible darning is not about using bright colours to provide an outstanding effect.
“The most important thing for darning is to fit the character of that owner and that garment. If it doesn’t match well, it looks wrong. This will make the owner feel uncomfortable to wear that. People got the wrong impression of what visible darning is. Using colourful materials is ok, it gives them that Instagram effect. But the important thing is that a darned garment is more comfortable for the owner to keep wearing it.”
Before my conversation with Hikaru, I had followed her live lessons on Instagram to repair some of my own things. When I casually mentioned that my results were far from perfect she gave me a friendly scold: “What is perfect darning for you?”
Indeed, it’s not about trying to rival the skills of a Saville Row tailor, but to extend a product’s life. As she states in her book, it’s through repetition, stitch after stitch, that the repaired object becomes your own original creation.
“Darning makes me really happy, and I want to give that happiness to others rather than keep doing this fun activity for myself. And that’s why I teach it.”
Darning is a way to recover knowledge that was common in the past and is very much needed today. It favours a change of mindset on how we’re using the World’s resources. Darning can take as little as a few minutes to an hour. So what are you going to do the next time you notice a hole in your favourite socks, sweater or jeans?
hikarunoguchi.com
@hikaru_noguchi_design
Book Darning: Repair Make Mend
Read
- Continuing a Craft by Weaver Llio James on Some Good Ideas.
- 4 reasons craft is good for your mental health by the Crafts Council UK.
- The Crafts Council UK has also launched the Market for Craft Report, with plenty of interesting insights.
- Craftspeople and time — A smart reflection by marketing luminary Seth Godin.
- The Kitchen Bladesmith — Longread on Bob Kramer by Craftsmanship Quarterly.
- Chile Crafts has an excellent newsletter (in Spanish) sharing the heritage of craftsmen from South America.
- Makers Bible, featured in issue n.020, has a new website with all the interviews, videos, and content from their books.
Listen
- Batch №3 — The Audio Guide. Indie makers Paynter Jacket created an audio journey to guide the owners of their Batch №3 jacket through the feautes and people behind the garment.
- Episode 4 of The Modern House Podcast features a conversation with British ceramicist and artist Edmund de Waal on his work, life and home, as well as his top three living spaces around the world.
Watch
- Chair Times by Vitra. A 90 minute-long documentary on the design and craftsmanship of chairs you say? I loved it!
Originally published at https://www.gchicco.com on June 1, 2020.
