'Make do and mend' doesn't really scream fashion, does it? Instead, it evokes a frustrated homebody, unable to have nice things, patching up children's tweed trousers with an old tea towel from a rainy holiday to Skegness as bombs fall overhead. But it's okay: the government-issued posters tell everyone to keep calm (and have a cupcake).
And yet. The art of garmental maintenance has become A Thing – and not just a fleeting moment that'll expire in a season's time. Yes, it is more polished than our preconceived notions would have us believe. Yes, it is so often constructed from ornamental fabrics that are a cut above the living room curtains that didn't actually look so great once upon the elbows of your worker's jacket. Patchwork has, ultimately, been a solid way for some labels to add actual definition to the sustainability buzzword, to create something new using the old.
One designer in particular dominates the conversation, her namesake brand seamlessly stitching all of these pieces together into one cohesive body: Emily Bode, the brains and creative director behind Bode menswear. "Emily made me fall in love with patchwork, and since she opened that door, the world became a more beautiful place," says Thom Scherdel, menswear buyer at luxury fashion retailer Browns. "She didn't invent the idea, but her designs made it so aesthetically pleasing you get lost in the intricacies of the garment on the rail. I spent an enormous amount of time trying to figure out how and why it worked so well."
It's a landscape jigsaw finished with bits from a children's animal puzzle. It shouldn't work, but does, the individual parts – quilted geometrics and delicate florals and shirts not unlike your grandma's doilies – fitting into one mismatched but organically scenic end product. It is jarring yet soothing, a fey-like quality almost mystifying the designer's muted runway shows. "I recall Comme des Garçons, Junya Watanabe and Raf Simons flirting with the idea of it in the seasons gone by, but now it feels relevant again," says Scherdel. "It feels almost historical in its assembly, which is what I think adds to that sense of wonderment."
Which, coincidentally, was the plan all along for a designer that repurposes antique textiles. On a brief phone call, the Atlanta-born Parsons grad talked of the history underpinning each collection. "Most of the inspiration comes from between 1880 to around 1960: that's the bulk, but it kinda depends on any given season. So for a historical technique, it might be something like applique or hand ties: the way in which we create a fabric.
"There's a lot of embroidery too, and we reinterpret the technique of corduroys, or something as simple as fabric manipulation or those done by hand in the original process like knitting or weaving. Bode is founded on the preservation of those techniques."
Inevitably, the trend picked up steam. While other labels are different in their approach, patchwork has the inherent ability to feel a little more textured, a little more layered in its finish. British designer Neil Barrett, for instance, plates the classic staple shirt with panels seemingly plucked from the swim shorts of a Rio poolside in the Sixties. The result: a sensible preppy salaryman in his WFHoliday rotation. Leeds-based outfit MKI sticks to the core pillars of workwear, but promotes the worker jacket by plucking denims from multiple sites, contrast pockets and sleeves enough to rejig the classics. Patchwork lets guys enjoy all sorts of menswear without straying too far from the stuff that works.
The chances to truly, confidently flirt in the left-field are still few and far between for many, despite the slow march to wider experimentalism on the runway. Patchwork allows men to pluck pieces from pools not usually found in the mainstream. "I'm such a collector, so there's different fabrics in different categories: incredible prints I found in India one time," says Bode. "The most exciting part is when you go somewhere and you don't expect to stumble upon something great. You expect to find something magical at the dealers that are really curated because they spend their lives curating for people like me. But when you wander into a little shop and stumble across something cool, it's quite special."
While not all labels share the same green credentials, 'make do and mend' is ever more prescient given fashion's impact upon the environment. It's not just the right thing for right now. It's also the right thing to do. "I couldn’t imagine starting a business that didn’t have some sort of sustainability. We grew up in a time where closets were filled with linen, and all sorts of stuff, and we'd go to clean out my grandmother's house and there was so much time and energy and effort put into textiles, it's such a shame not to use them anymore."
A real shame, indeed – and one your new wardrobe won't suffer with Bode and some of her contemporaries inside.
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