“This is a bit ugly, but it works, so whatever” A thematic analysis on men’s garment mending experiences
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School of Business |
Master's thesis
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Authors
Date
2024
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Creative Sustainability
Language
en
Pages
87 + 8
Series
Abstract
Six out of nine planetary boundaries have already been crossed indicating that the climate crisis is evident. The fashion industry is one of the most polluting industries due to fast consumption encouraged by linear business models. To reduce the industry’s environmental impact, the fashion industry should move, along with other improvements, towards circularity. One essential part of circularity in the fashion field is extending the cloth’s lifetime by mending it. Mending has started to gain attraction during the several past years, but there is a binary gender gap in mending: more women are mending clothes than men. This thesis studies men’s mending experiences as a part of sustainable consumption behaviour. The purpose of the study is to understand why men mend and on the contrary, why men do not mend. In the previous literature, the focus has been mostly on women creating a clear research gap. The study was conducted by interviewing eight men who mend. During the semi-structured interviews, the participants presented clothes they had mended to gain a better connection with the topic, inspired by arts-based methods. The findings indicate that instead of the aesthetics of the end result, men prefer a fast and easy mending to get the garment back in use quickly. Thus, mending skills do not need to be very advanced. It also became evident that valuing already owned clothes supports mending. Additionally, positive feelings, such as self-sufficiency and pride, related to the mending practice were identified as major drivers for mending. Finally, having strong environmental values and being comfortable with socially perceived feminine tasks increased men’s mending motivation. On the other hand, the findings imply that if there is no high willingness to mend, the challenges in mending might prevent men from mending. Not having high mending skills and wanting to mend quickly and easily prevent men from mending bigger damage. Also, for some men it is okay to wear broken clothes if it does not affect the functionality, and therefore, mending is not important for them. In addition, if there is not enough support, such as positive feelings, negative feelings towards mending can prevent mending. Lastly, not having environmental concerns and not wanting to be associated with tasks generally considered feminine were mentioned as preventing factors for mending. To conclude, the findings suggest that the willingness to mend needs to be high to overcome the challenges in mending for men.Description
Thesis advisor
Huopalainen, AstridKeywords
mending, clothing, fashion industry, circular economy, gender gap