29 Mar London Repair Week at the FC Designer Collective

Over 50 people attended our free repair and upcycling sessions during London Repair Week (20th – 26th March) at our retail outlet: FC Designer Collective at 113-115 Fonthill Road. 

The Fashion-Enter Ltd (FEL) team organised additional tables for the local residents and each day the shop was buzzing with activity. 

Our highly experienced stitching technician Leyla was on hand with Gee, Jenny and Leah to support all the attendees and there was such a strong community vibe – this really was an excellent event sponsored by Islington Council. 

The majority of residents brought in garments that needed repairs, however a large group used the additional clothes FEL supplied to create new, upcycled garments. This was so creative with many of the attendees asking for the sessions to be held every week. 

Leyla said: “This is a local designer community shop and we should be opening the doors to welcome the locals in. No one has any money at the moment and everyone was talking to each other. It’s a way of getting people out of their homes and talking too. So many people are fed up with no money but when they’re together they chat and bring creative ideas together. We need more repair days like this.” 

FEL also encouraged people to bring in their domestic machines, as you can see by the photo with the lady with blonde hair. 

Leyla added: “So many people do have domestic machines at home but don’t know how use the machines – I was glad we could help them thread and sort out the settings. We didn’t have one negative comment. It was just great to meet people from the community who were genuinely happy.”

The FC Designer Collective offered 4 days of drop in repair and upcycle sessions with an exhibition day on the 5th and final day showcasing the variety of work that had been created.

Thank-you to Islington Council for allowing this week-long program to be funded. The council compiled a quick online feedback form for attendees to complete and the responses were excellent. All of the attendees responding said that they would like another Repair Cafe event, that they found it useful and that they would recommend it to friends and family. 60% found the sessions ‘excellent’ with the remaining 40% stated that they were ‘good’. Over half of the attendees had never repaired clothing / textiles before and would love to meet up again and learn more in future repair sessions.