Clothing repair tour to hit St. Ouen's Bay

Thursday 15 August 2019

A global clothing company that encourages people to repair their clothes and wetsuits instead of throwing them away will be visiting a St. Ouen shop next week to mend islanders' clothes.

The Surfyard, which is located along the Five Mile Road, will be welcoming Patagonia’s ‘Worn Wear’ repair Tour’ on 21 and 22 August.

Specialised in mountain, surf and adventure clothing, Patagonia launched the 'Worn Wear' scheme over four years ago in a bid to encourage people to mend and repair their favourite clothes, as a way of recycling what they have. The company even built a repair truck to tour Europe’s best surfing spots to fix wetsuits and other items of clothing

Andrew Hosegood, owner of the Surfyard, says he is thrilled that this year Patagonia has added Jersey to its tour.

Video: The 'Worn Wear' scheme was launched to encourage people to mend and repair their favourite clothes instead of throwing them away.

“The ‘Worn Wear’ tour has been travelling to major surf stops and suddenly little Jersey has appeared on their map,” he told Express. “They go to Portugal, the coast of France, Ireland, Scotland, Cornwall and now Jersey, it’s really good. It’s a huge thing for a little surf shop down in the bay, to be recognised and supported by a global company like Patagonia.”

It's hoped that the ‘Worn Wear’ repair truck will also serve as a way to highlight a more sustainable way of dealing with damaged clothing, as Mr Hosegood explained 

“We all try to be as green and environment-friendly as possible and what the ‘Worn Wear’ tour is doing is encouraging people to reuse and recycle their clothing. Most people would throw it away, but Patagonia is saying, ‘Don’t do that, patch it away.'

"In the days of cheap fashion, it’s so easy to throw things away but Patagonia encourages people to wear clothes a little bit longer.”

Pictured: The 'Worn Wear' repair truck travels around Europe's best surfing spots.

“It seems strange for a clothing company that is in business to sell clothes, but they are passionate believers in protecting our environment, and the Worn Wear Tour is one of many initiatives,” Mr Hosegood added. 

Repairs are open to any item of clothing - from jeans, shirts, and shorts to wetsuits - so people are invited to bring one item to have repaired for free.

“If you love it and want a bit more life out of it, then please bring it down to The Surfyard, from 12:00 on Wednesday 21 August, and all day Thursday 22 August,” Mr Hosegood said.  

As part of their visit, Patagonia will also be showing ‘Mountain of Storms’, which Mr Hosegood described as “an absolute classic”, on the shop’s wall.

Pictured: The movie will be shown on the Surfyard's wall.

The movie, which was filmed on a 16mm Bolex, was remastered for Patagonia’s 50^th anniversary. It tells the story of five friends – including Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, and Doug Tompkins, founder of North Face - and their road trip from California to Patagonia to climb Cerro Fitz Roy.

“It’s a legendary movie,” Mr Hosegood said. “It’s the original dirtbag road trip, when in 1968, five friends set off from southern California, looking for surf and adventure. They headed south and their story of endless unexplored surf breaks and mountains, stretching down the south American coast, ending in Patagonia, quickly became legendary." 

“If you have even just a spark of adventure in you, you need to see it,” Mr Hosegood said, urging people to bring their own chairs and wrap up warm for the showing at sun set.

El Tico will be open as normal, and in addition Pizza Projekt and Stink Bay Brewery will be on site to serve up “great pizza and chilled beer.”

Video: The trailer for 'Mountain of Storms'.

It was actually an open air screening that sparked the relationship between The Surfyard and Patagonia. Two years ago, the shop presented ‘Fish People’, a Patagonia documentary from Keith Malloy focusing on six people whose lives revolve in or around the sea.

“The person who deals with our account came to the showing and he was blown away by the community feel that Jersey has,” Mr Hosegood said.

Since then, the Surfyard owner said that the clothing company has been very happy to support them and their efforts to protect St. Ouen’s Bay, which they described as “a stunning natural resource.” 

Mr Hosegood said: “If everything can be a little more sustainable, then we stand a better chance at keeping our environment and our bay out west.”