Justin South

Making Design Circular with Katie Treggiden

Is repair and restoration limited to the things we own? Can it be applied to other facets of our life? How is repair correlated to poverty, and can that change for the betterment of our planet? How is community related to all of this?

On today’s episode, I’m talking to Justin South, a 32-year-old bisexual fashion student. Four years ago, Justin went into rehab for drug and alcohol addiction and has been in recovery ever since. During that time, he has worked with several charities that support recovering addicts and discovered the power of repair – as both a literal skill and a helpful metaphor.

We discuss:

- How restoration and repair played a role in his recovery .

- His time learning at Restoration Station.

- The idea of living with mistakes and how restoration helps to build that confidence.

- Why mending and repair is so important from a sustainability perspective.

- How mending and repair play a role while studying Fashion Pattern Cutting at London College of Fashion.

… and more!

Here are some highlights.

How repair and restoration can heal

“These ideas of repair and restoration, I think, are not just limited to the things that you own, it can also be yourself. And having an LGBTQ+ community, it creates this space where you can be accepted and you can air your “brokenness,” as it were and find within that community a way to heal.”

People’s reactions to restoring for the first time at Restoration Station

“I think people were really, really surprised and almost in a way that was unbelievable, that they couldn't even envisage this piece coming back to life. You get so used to – when something is broken – to it being always that way, and for them to see it go from simply being broken to being fixed without any of the in-between process, I think people got a real kind of shock and surprise and enjoyment out of how different their piece of, whatever it is they brought in, looked.”

Mending and its assumed correlation to poverty

[Katie adds] “I think there’s a real hierarchy sometimes between the different things we enjoy, and all the different things we like to do. I think it's interesting that you mentioned that you're from quite a middle class background and therefore mending and repair didn't necessarily come up. I think it's another thing that it’s interestingly often associated with poverty. We mend something because we can't afford to buy a new one rather than because we love that thing and we just wanna keep it in our lives.”

Learn more about Restoration Station: https://www.sct.org.uk/social-enterprises/restoration-station/

About Katie Treggiden

Katie Treggiden is a purpose-driven journalist, author, podcaster and keynote speaker championing a circular approach to design – because Planet Earth needs better stories. With 20 years' experience in the creative industries, she regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, Crafts Magazine, Design Milk and Monocle24. Following research during her recent Masters at the University of Oxford, she is currently exploring the question ‘can craft save the world?’ through an emerging body of work that includes her fifth book, Wasted: When Trash Becomes Treasure (Ludion, 2020), and this podcast.

You can find Katie on Instagram @katietreggiden.1, sign up for her e-newsletter here and if you’re a designer-maker interested in becoming more sustainable, sign up for her free Facebook Group here. If you’d like to support more fantastic content like this, you can buy Katie a ‘virtual coffee’ here in exchange for behind the scenes content and a shout-out in Season Three.

Waste: A masterclass is a 12-week programme conceived to inspire, educate and empower designer-makers to create circular products from waste. Click here to find out more or visit katietreggiden.com/masterclass.