You know you’re really poor when your clothes literally start falling apart while still on your back. It’s okay, we’ve all been there, and lucky for you, this weekend you can get them fixed for free at the DUMBO Arts Festival. Artist Anne Breimaier and her Mending Machine will have a booth set up through November 20, ready to sew any clothes you bring to her and as an added bonus you can call it art!
You can call it cheap, or even ghetto, having to get your clothes sewn back together instead of buying new threads like a normal person, or you can call it hip and designer like clever Brooklynites are want to do. Not only is it cool and unique as you will now be a walking piece of art, it’s also free! As part of the performance art the artist, Breimaier, let’s you choose the color of the thread she will stitch with and whether the stitching is visible or not.
Breimaier will be using the same mending kit that her grandmother, who grew up in Germany during the rise of the Third Reich, once owned. As she sews your clothes back together, you’re invited to engage with Breimaier as you look at pictures and journals from the artist’s great-grandfather, who was a well to do German and Hitler supporter. Or, you can just ignore all that and wait for your clothes to be fixed.
It could be a heavy experience, leaving you in deep reflective self thought, or it could miss the mark and leave you unimpressed and unchanged, but regardless of the emotional effect you could potentially resurrect your favorite pair of jeans from high school with a hole so inconveniently torn in the crotch, and have it mended back together like new! It’s up to you what you can take from the experience, but with Autumn officially upon us, who doesn’t want to revamp their wardrobe?
The exhibit will be open to the public during the festival, Friday, September 26 from 6pm-9pm, Saturday, September 27 from noon to 6pm, and Sunday, September 28 from noon to 6pm at 59 Pearl Street in DUMBO.