Coronavirus has exposed all the things we knew were broken down and somehow could never find the time, money, or political will to fix. Now, there is a cascade of collective breaking—our cities, our bodies, our minds, our hearts. More optimistically, the global pandemic is revealing all the unprecedented opportunities we will have for fixing. Though, of course, whatever we fix will always, by definition, mark prior brokenness.

Mending our clothes is not going to bring the wheels of the fashion industry to a grinding halt—though COVID-19 might—but Mending Life suggests that it can help us reimagine what clothes are and what they mean to us. “Our clothes take care of us. They are our protective shell, our second skin, our closest embrace. They encircle us gently and keep us dry, warm, and cozy.” Through mending, we acknowledge the service of our clothes.

Mending Life presents the micro-action of mending as both meditation and practice, the solution for a torn sleeve and the pattern for a larger cultural shift. “Small acts matter in the slow process of culture change,” write the Montenegros. Mending is a metaphor for living with gratitude, intention, and anti-wastefulness, and embraces the optimism of their adopted maxim: “There’s nothing broken that can’t be fixed.”

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