In 2015 in World 173, bored by gender-normative idealised bodies and microtrends, people in the UK stop binge watching Love Island and take matter(s) into their own hands.
At Sewing World, instead of counting calories we ‘notch up’ techniques. BMI stands for Bodies, Materials & Inspiration. The philosophy is one of radical self-acceptance and body-positivity. Sessions start with a show-and-tell and ‘Sewist of the Week’ award for the best told sewing story. Budding sewists pledge their intended sewing activities for the week ahead.
As people find their personal style and learn to make clothes that fit better, the fashion industry falters and athleisure wear is consigned to history. Cosmetic plastic surgeons retrain to become expert pattern cutters and alteration aficionados who tour the Weave Watchers circuit.
What if …
sewing clubs were more common than slimming clubs?
Issue:
Idealised body-normativity, badly fitting clothes, micro-plastic-shedding athleisure wear, celebrity and ‘reality’ TV culture
Inspiration:
nudge theory; the community, mutual support and public commitment aspects of Slimming World and Weight Watchers; PhD research participants’ experiences
This World was contributed by Sally Cooke (located in Leeds, UK) using a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence which allows others to share and adapt the work in any medium and for any purpose, providing that they credit the author and share their material using the same Creative Commons licence.
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