So this is a tiny little project, but one that has brought me a lot of happiness.
14 years ago I tried to design my life for happiness. I measured my happiness each day, and then made adjustments to how I lived to see if I could improve my happiness.
One of those experiments was to determine if my fashion choices impacted my happiness. I came to the conclusion that what I wore did not have a huge impact on my happiness (except negatively if I worried about what to wear in a particular setting.)
Based on this data, I got rid of almost all of my clothes, and for the past 14 years have worn the same thing every day. I have two pairs of jeans at any time, a number of white t-shirts, a couple pairs of shoes, a sweater, a jumper, a few other things, and that is about it.
Over this time I've found my jeans usually last about 1.5 years, then the holes became too big, and I would get a new pair. I was always frustrated that they didn't last longer, and I hated to have to get rid of them (recycle) when they still felt so comfortable, and fit well.
I've always loved the Japanese practice of Kintsugi where broken porcelain or ceramic vessels are repaired with a gold lacquer. The breaks are celebrated, and the object is given a second life.
Inspired by that, I've started to patch the holes in my old clothes. But not with a hidden patch. I actually try to make the repair as loud as possible with brightly colored thread and an intense pattern, and then I even brand the repair with the Logo of my happiness company, Masamichi Souzou. (I know loud repairs aren't new, but I've enjoyed playing in this space with others.)
I've been really happy with the result. It has made it fun to wear these clothes again, the holes and patches become a point of pride, and it has been cool to have people ask about the clothes as I'm out and about. It allows me to tell the story of my simple clothing choices, my goals for happiness, and the goal of extending the useful life of the clothing. Each piece becomes more precious to me.
Our modern fashion systems are an ugly contributor to over consumption, wasteful resource use, exploitative labor practices, social anxiety and body image issues, pollution, micro-plastics, climate change, etc. Every time we buy an article of clothing we are in someway part of this system. This project has become a tiny way for me to reinforce not buying things, reuse what I have, push back against current fashion norms and narratives, and to try to live in line with how I see the world.
Would love to hear your thoughts! And if you are interested in a MMSZ repair kit for your own clothing let me know, I've had a few people ask about them, and we may start selling them. (We look to run MMSZ as a profit-less for-profit company, only working to cover our costs and the evolutionary basic needs of our employees).