https://reasonstobecheerful.world/france-subsidize-clothing-repair/
"In downtown Bordeaux, the big fashion brands of the world dominate the
district around Rue Sainte-Catherine, nearly upstaging the St. Andre Cathedral
and the famous Grand Theatre de Bordeaux. Their LED signs blaze from behind
magnificent neoclassical facades: H&M, Old Navy, G-Star RAW — a modern cultural
form embedded within the old.
Mireille Paumier’s studio for repairs is located on a far less ostentatious
side street. Top Retouches is written on a green sign at the entrance. A steep
staircase leads up to the first floor, where the 56-year-old sits at her sewing
machine under a bright neon lamp and sews a zipper into a pair of trousers. A
customer waits at a small counter, leafing through a magazine. Mireille Paumier
repairs many things. She replaces buttons and jacket linings, renews broken
seams, changes waistbands and skirt waists, plugs holes or patches them with a
piece of fabric. “People often stop wearing their clothes because some little
thing is wrong or broken.” The seamstress, who works by appointment, looks up
only briefly through her large glasses. “Because of my work, customers use
their clothes longer.”
Now, Ms. Paumier’s work will be supported by the French government, which has
set up a fund for clothing repairs financed by taxes on manufacturers and
retailers in France’s fashion industry. Starting this month, anyone in France
who has shoes resoled or clothing repaired will receive a subsidy. The repair
bonus of between six and 25 euros is intended to encourage consumers to visit
cobblers and tailors instead of throwing away old shoes and clothes. Some 154
million euros are available for the program until 2028.
In this way, the French government is responding to an ecological problem that
is only gradually coming to the public’s attention. Ever shorter life cycles
for clothing are consuming resources and growing mountains of waste. Hardly any
other flow of goods has grown so dramatically in recent years, and with so
little regulation, as the ballooning textile industry."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
