What Sustainable Fashion Week taught us about making, mending and meaning

As September turns to autumn, we wanted to look back on a brilliant few weeks at Emergence Commons. This year, we partnered with Just SUST Festival for Sustainable Fashion Week, and our space on Kendrick Street became a place to ask a simple but important question: how do we keep the clothes we already have in use for longer?

Making, together

The answer, it turns out, is often found around a table. Over the past few weeks we've hosted [needle felting, banner making with Stitch Social and School Shirt Revival — edit to match], each one bringing new people through our doors to try something with their hands. People who'd never threaded a needle went home with something they'd made themselves.

Asking bigger questions

On 29 September, Lynne Elvins of Design Rally brought her session Design Serving Life to Emergence. It was an evening for makers, designers and small businesses to step back from the pressure to keep producing more, and ask: what problems are we actually solving when we make, buy, sell and share clothes?

What we're taking forward

Sustainable Fashion Week is one week a year, but the work carries on every week. A few things we're taking forward this autumn:

• Repair first. Our Sewing Bee, Sewing Surgery and repair sessions make mending social, practical and fun.

• Make it creative. Upcycling works best when the result is something you're proud to wear, not just something saved from the bin.

• Share what we know. From Stroud High students to first-time makers, passing on skills is how change spreads.

Thank you to Just SUST Festival, to every maker and facilitator who led a session, and to everyone who came along. If Sustainable Fashion Week sparked something for you, join us at our Fundraiser Brunch on Sunday 11 October, or come and see what's on in the shop this month.