Mended Clothes Go Mainstream as Shein and Ralph Lauren Sell Patched Garments

Ralph Lauren and Shein, two brands at opposite ends of the price spectrum, are both selling stitched and patched garments right now — the clearest sign that mended clothing has crossed from hobby craft into mainstream retail.

The trend, known as "visible mending," turns repairs into decoration. It spread from community workshops and crafters to designer catwalks this year, roughly six years after it first took off, according to Jayne Eagle, who runs mending workshops in Brighton.

How visible mending works

At a Saturday morning workshop in Brighton, Eagle teaches students to attach a patch of fabric behind a tear so a cat-face design peeps through. She instructs them in stitching techniques inspired by the traditional Japanese methods Boro and Sashiko. Students use geometric patterns in large white stitching instead of matching the thread colour to the garment. She also teaches darning in contrasting vibrant colours that celebrate, rather than disguise, the repair.

One student, Nicola, has already stitched over sunscreen marks on a T-shirt, "making a feature of it." She says people now "stop seeing the stains and just see the decoration." Another student, Lisa, patched a second-hand jacket she had accidentally cut with scissors while opening the package. The mend, she says, "looks intentional."

"I was actually pointing it out to people," she says.

Lisa notes her mother's generation would never have wanted mends to show. "Now part of it is being proud of what you've done," she says.

Why the backlash against fast fashion sells

Eagle traces the decline of mending to the "throwaway" fast fashion era that began in the 1980s, which eroded both the tradition of looking after clothes and the skills to do it. She sees the revival as a backlash against fashion industry overproduction and its damage: pollution, carbon emissions, water use and poor labour conditions.

Alice Brown, a 27-year-old forest ranger from Lincolnshire, has turned the craft into a personal brand. Over the last year she has developed a style of needle-felting cute animals and insects over moth holes, stains and other imperfections, winning a large following online. A hole does not stop her buying a second-hand jumper. "I see it as challenge," she says.

"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.

What are retailers actually doing?

Several High Street chains have gone beyond selling pre-patched new clothes and now offer in-house repairs and workshops.

"We want to give customers practical ways to extend the life of the clothes they already love, rather than simply replacing them," says Maria Ledous, Uniqlo's head of sustainability.

Primark, often labelled fast fashion because of its low prices, has joined in. "We don't think that affordability and durability should be opposites," says Vicki Swain, the brand's longevity lead.

The numbers vary by brand. Outdoor label Finisterre says around a fifth of the mends it provides are designed to be eye-catching. Premium artisan retailer Toast puts that share at around a third.

Part of the "magic" is that customers can bring in a garment and "choose what they'd like it to become next," says Toast chief executive Suzie de Rohan Willner. Toast's repair services are free, but its off-the-peg "renewed" pieces fetch higher prices than the originals to reflect their unique character.

Levi's is rolling out a workshop programme this year. The company says its research shows younger customers in particular want to repair more but don't know how.

Do Gen Z shoppers actually want visible mends?

For now, Levi's workshops teach traditional skills such as sewing on a button and hemming, not visible mending. At a recent launch event in London, that matched what its Gen Z participants wanted.

"I'm from East London. If you have holes in your clothes people are like 'Ha ha! You're poor!'," says 16-year-old school student Bianca.

Theo, 19, says he would rather learn how to mend without it showing. "I would want [the jeans] to look how I originally bought them," he says. He sells clothes at car boot sales and believes repair skills would make that side hustle more lucrative. His friend Nicholas, also 19, says most people want to look "fresh." "No-one wants to look like they came out of a dumpster," he says.

Paul Dillinger, Levi's head of global design innovation, thinks more creative repairs will win them over as their skills grow. "No-one has time for that perfect 'straight from the shop' thing. That's not cool," he says. "People crave agency. Mending is a demonstration of humanity: it's not a mustard stain, it's a memory of a great day in the ballpark."

The commercial test now is whether free repairs and paid workshops can convert a craft-led backlash into repeat retail traffic.