From Levi's to Primark - the fashion chains selling mended clothes

Breaking news from the markets: From Levi's to Primark - the fashion chains selling mended clothesImage caption, At a workshop run by Levi's, Nicholas (r) says he prefers mending not to show, while Bianca (centre) says people still see it as a sign of povertyByLucy HookerBusiness reporterPublished30 October 2026If Alice Brown is browsing in second-hand shops and finds a jumper with a hole, that won't stop her buying it. "I see it as challenge," says the 27-year-old forest ranger from Lincolnshire. She is a champion of the growing fashion for eye-catching repairs.

Over the last year she has developed her own unique style, needle-felting cute animals and insects to cover moth holes, stains and other imperfections, winning her a huge following online. "The natural place for decoration is in the centre at the front. If the hole is under the arm or on the shoulder, it forces you to think about the design," she says.

Economic Details

Often dubbed "visible mending" the trend is spreading from hobby crafters and community workshops, even drawing in fast-fashion brands and reaching the designer catwalks this year. Image source, Jayne Eagle / The Stitching MagpieImage caption, Some mends are designed to be eye-catchingAt one Saturday morning workshop in Brighton, Jayne Eagle shows her students how to attach a patch of fabric behind a tear so the cat-face design peeps through. Then she instructs them in stitching techniques inspired by the traditional Japanese methods Boro and Sashiko.

Instead of matching the thread colour to the garment, they make the mend highly decorative using geometric patterns in large white stitching. She also offers classes in darning using contrasting vibrant colours that celebrate, rather than disguise, the repair. Image caption, Jayne Eagle sees repair as an "act of rebellion" against fast fashionOne student, Nicola, has already used her newfound skills to stitch over sunscreen marks on a T-shirt "making a feature of it" and is now delighted that people "stop seeing the stains and just see the decoration".

Another student, Lisa, says her mother's generation would never have wanted the mends to show. "Now part of it is being proud of what you've done," she says. Lisa bought a second-hand jacket online, but snipped the fabric with the scissors when she was opening the package.

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She managed to patch it in a way that "looks intentional". "I was actually pointing it out to people," she laughs. Image caption, Lisa says she's so proud of her mends she wants people to notice themIn the past mending was primarily about saving money, by wearing clothes for longer, rather than buying new.

But visible mending is about celebrating that choice. The trend took off about six years ago, Jayne says, and has boomed since. An era of "throwaway" fast fashion from the 1980s onwards undermined the tradition of looking after and mending your clothes and people lost the skills, she says.

Economists are analysing what the news means for the markets.