Make Do and Mend

If there’s one dress you think you’ll never wear again, it’s your wedding dress. And you’re not alone; it’s almost traditional NOT to wear it again, and there are companies out there encouraging you to pack it away in elaborate boxes that, I’m afraid to say, resemble clothes’ coffins…

But don’t you think such a dress should be worn again and again? You did, after all, spend not only money, but weeks, months even years choosing it. Perhaps you were even fantasising about it as a girl? Why, then, wear it for one special day and then lay it to rest, loved but untouched, at the back of your wardrobe?

We at Achillea Marini think this is the worst crime to befall a dress that had, up until it’s banishment to the clothes’ coffin, been the apple of the bride’s eye.

This is why we decided to turn things around. How, we thought, can we save our beautiful wedding dresses from the solitary confinement of storage? We realised it would look rather bizarre and out of place to wear your wedding dress to a black tie event, or any other event for that matter, because it would still look like a wedding dress, and people would stare…

The only solution, then, is to alter the dress to turn it from a wedding gown into an evening frock. Bingo! And our customers thought it was a fantastic idea, too. Working one-on-one with our brides, we make small changes to the design of their wedding gown to create a dress they’d be happy to wear long after their wedding day.

And all completely free of charge; we see it as a little wedding gift.

But there’s a weightier reason behind our enthusiasm to encourage the reuse of our wedding dresses, and that reason is: the environment. There’s so much emphasis nowadays on recycling paper, cans, glass, plastic…but what about textiles?  People throw away millions of tonnes of textiles every year, and this has disastrous consequences on the environment as many of the fabrics we wear do not decompose.

Now, we know you’re not going to fling your wedding dress into the landfill site, but even so we think it’s important to inspire women to get the most out of their beautiful clothes. We also want to contribute to the growing movement of ‘slow’ fashion, rather than the mass-produced, disposable fashion that is unfortunately so strong in the market.

We also hope to encourage our brides to do the same with their everyday wardrobe. The old saying, ‘make do and mend’ needs to be reclaimed from the history books and put back into the consumer’s consciousness. Are your jeans wearing thin at the knees? Lop off the legs to create a stylish pair of denim shorts. Bored of the jumper you’ve had since you were fifteen? Get creative and add a quirky design to the front. Be your own fashion designer, it’s fun!

For a touch of inspiration, take a look at this website: http://make-do-and-mend.org/, which is full of fun and quirky recycling ideas. Or, for advice on everything from making clothes from scraps of fabric to hacking up your hoodie, go to: http://www.squidoo.com/how-to-recycle-clothes.

For those of you who just want the hard facts about textile recycling, see: http://www.textilerecycling.info/#/textile-recycling-facts/4543172877.

Achillea Marini contributes to the environment in many other ways, all of which are detailed on our Environment page. If you have any tips for us on how to be greener, or would like more information on any of our services, we’d love to hear from you!