A clothing activist's sage advice—and a hole in her logic
Mitten clap to Laura J., who sent this Guardian article, "Feed Your Moths and Hide Your Trousers: The Expert's Guide to Making Clothes Last Forever", by Hannah Mariott.
The piece profiles Orsola de Castro, fashion designer, co-founder of Fashion Revolution, an organization dedicated to the responsible acquisition and maintenance of clothes, and author of the book "Loved Clothes Last" (Penguin Books).
As Mariott writes, "She advocates 'radical keeping'... the only antidote to throwaway culture is to keep."
She has a novel approach to donation: "...before donating to thrifts (which receive more far clothes than they can sell), consider gifting them to friends or family." The idea is to adopt it out rather than pass on the problem to thrifts, who end up sending much of it to landfills.
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| Visible mending by Tom of Holland |
I felt kinship, gratitude, admiration, and validation for wearing my decades-old cashmeres. However, despite all her excellent strategies (be a more discerning buyer; don't over-clean; 'hide' your clothes (my version is the clothing furlough); embellish the imperfections (visible mending); don't upcycle— she has one dreadful piece of advice:
"Keep a sacrificial old jumper or ball of yarn in a fabric moths will love that can get chewed in your wardrobe while your other knits remain intact."
This is like saying, "Throw a tulip bulb into your garden beds and the squirrels will leave your flowers and seedlings alone."
Moths do not think, "Oh, look, Marcie has left us a lovely sweater, we wouldn't dream of hitting that silk blouse she's saving for good." Larvae are hungry little opportunists (mature moths that you see flying do not feed); who knows how sentient they are, but they are not making judgement calls.
Feeding means breeding
She says, "I feed my moths like I feed my cats." Hang on; her cats are neutered. (If not, I assume she is arranging regular adoptions.) De Castro's advice will yield more moths—and no one wants pick of the litter. Her tactic accelerates the inevitable: a miserable, expensive infestation. Over the past 40 years I have had mothless periods, but the usual is a grim, sustained battle. Climate change has made moth problems worse, no matter where you live.
But let's not throw the baby in her sweetly-patched layette out with the bathwater. De Castro has a bold, encouraging and informative approach. I'm ordering her book and continuing to fight the fast-fashion, disposable mind-set.
And the moths.
Comments
My darling granny had a priceless piece of advice re stopping moth larvae in their tracks: 'turn it out' every six weeks. That meant, empty drawers and wardrobes, and checking for the blighters every 6 weeks. Very manageable when people had far fewer clothes and a good discipline these days for keeping less clothes so one may keep a beady eye on matters pestilential.
My godfather founded a luxury clothing store. Naturally their Scottish cashmeres were targets. He was like your gran; he said "Mess 'em up". The staff emptied all the drawers and shook out the pieces. Nothing was allowed to remain undisturbed from month to month. I am just as appalled by the spurious internet re advice to place a cedar block or sachet in your closet, to "kill moths". The concentration of oil is too low to do any good. Another popular myth is that drycleaning something like a cushion mothproofs it forever. As soon as you get a little body dirt or food residue on it, it's over.
BTW, I've noticed a lot of sellers on resale sites listing their goods as "dark academia." Thanks for the introduction in your recent post. E
Unknown: I have written about traps. I buy mine on eBay from a UK seller, kritterkill1. His traps are very effective; I have tried 5-6 other brands including MothPrevention, which mentions using "German-engineered pheromes". Trap makers are careful to say they "alert you to the presence", not kill all of them. As I wrote, they trap ply males but not all males make it to the traps, and if they find a live, fluttering female... game over. If the traps are not fresh enough, they will not work and I found some brands better than others but all attracted some males. (There is a DIY recipe involving sticky paper and fish oil, but I haven't tried it.)
I change them every 3 months, as directed. But I still have some moths (as evidenced by the traps.) Unless someone has a •very• low level problem, traps do not eliminate moths entirely. As Hester said in her comment at 10:34, "There is no passive measure that truly works."
E.: Scrap cashmere can also be unravelled , washed and rewound into small bundles for visible mending. I have a small stash and plan to make patches for my gloves, which always wear on the thumbs. My mother used old cashmere sweaters to wrap her upper chest and neck when she had a cold. Vicks rub slathered on the throat and lung area, the cashmere over.
You can also find many DA sellers on Etsy, some attaching the label to just about anything vintage.
Constant vigilance is required here - and it's even worse for my sister in Paris! Frequent savage cleaning of wardrobes and cupboards is my main line of defence, plus I use those little orange balls to deter them.
Jane in London
Allison: Longtime readers have been subjected to my moth-battle posts, I guess I should tag those MOTHS. Freezing is great to kill anything you bring in initially, so is high heat (like a steam iron) but that is of course a no-go for fine knits. Problem is, the freezer tactic kills larvae that come in, but that item is subject to being eaten subsequently, if you already have moths or they get in. (I have never known anyone who has the discipline to keep freezing every piece often.)
Cedar chests are often recommended but if not absolutely airtight, they do nothing more than any drawer. Moths can get into miniscule cracks behind baseboards, in the crack of a table leaf... not just fabric.
I have always machine-washed cashmere in a large mesh bag, using a wool programme. Any mild soap works, I like baby shampoo. Cashmeres are softer and loftier when washed versus drycleaned.
Drycleaners have a shrieking dread of customers bringing in moths! The eggs are invisible to the eye, clear and often in seams.
Hester: Thank you so much for that book reference. There is an upsurge of interest in visible mending, I have posted about boro, the Japanese patching technique and its philosophy. See https://passagedesperles.blogspot.com/2019/09/patches-and-pieces-philosophy-and-art.html
Jane: Yes, clean like a maniac! I have to watch out that moths do not get into, and breed in, my vacuum's bag. So I change it outdoors and I have indeed seen moths in the full bag. They will eat dust.