In the past twelve months, I’ve gone through the knees of three pairs of jeans. I couldn’t bring myself to throw them away, so I stored them in what should probably now be referred to as ‘Denim Silo One’. One afternoon, feeling particularly miserly and not relishing the prospect of shopping for yet another pair, I broke out the needle and thread and mended them. Several months later, they’re still entirely serviceable and, dare I say it, even a little bit awesome.

Repairing was kind of liberating… sort of empowering. I was hooked. I began to look through the box of clothes I had kept to ‘deal with’ later to see what else I could breathe life into again.

I’m not alone in taking clothing matters into my own hands. Even the most fleeting glance at that colossal time-sucker, Pinterest, will reveal myriad tutorials for repurposing and refashioning almost everything. Repairing is on the up.

‘As individual consumers,’ says Rose Marcario, the Patagonia CEO, ‘the single best thing we can do for the planet is to keep our stuff in use longer’.

Whilst this seems like a no-brainer, judging from figures trickling out from various think-tanks and consumer watchdogs in the fashion industry, we’re buying clothing in quantities that are just hard to compute. Greenpeace estimate that 80 billion garments are produced each year and, in the UK alone, 2 million tonnes of clothing is thrown away over that same time period. As anyone who’s ever bemoaned a lack of suitable attire whilst staring at a bulging wardrobe can attest, it’s all a little puzzling.

In 1941, the yearly ration for clothing was 66 coupons and a dress would set you back 11 of those

It’s all a far cry from Britain in 1941, when clothes rationing was introduced to a resource-strapped nation. Then, with dwindling supplies as much of a reality as a trending news story featuring a Kardashian is now, the onus was on care and repair. It had to be. The yearly ration for clothing was 66 coupons and, as a dress would set you back 11 of those, the government’s publicity campaigns about ‘counting your coupons’ were very necessary.

When the pamphlet ‘Make Do And Mend’ was published by the government in 1943, it gave a slogan to this necessity, as well as inspiration and support to a population massively restricted in what they could buy.

It’s little wonder that ingenuity took hold, and did so on a large scale. Sweaters were unravelled, and the yarn knitted into something else, men’s suits refashioned into ladies’ wear, parachutes into underwear. ‘Monotony is Patriotism’s biggest enemy’ quipped one pattern for repurposing old clothes: scarcity did not stop people dressing themselves well or yearning for variety.

Times may have changed and rationing so far gone as to be consigned to stuff of folklore, but where scarcity was once a problem, we’re now facing an epidemic of choice.

In certain small corners we are starting to recognise the value of longevity in clothing and some businesses are even using this as the cornerstone of their brand identity

Over the last few years a little whisper of a new trend seems to be emerging. People are trying to do well with less. While their motivations might vary (it could be for moral, economic or, let’s face it, hipster, reasons) the end product is the same: in certain small corners we are starting to recognise the value of longevity in clothing and some businesses are even using this notion as the cornerstone of their brand identity.

Here in the UK, small mono-manufacturer Hiut Denim are proudly embracing their ‘do one thing well’ ethos by only making jeans and encouraging you to send them back when they need some TLC. More globally, the aforementioned Patagonia have dedicated considerable effort into their ‘worn wear’ program and have a entire website dedicated to step-by-step how-tos for fixing those tricky active-wear tears and rips. Repair, they would have us believe, is a radical act.

Or is it just something that we’ve kind of forgotten how to do, so easy is it to pop down the high street and pick up a replacement?

In a corner of Pop Brixton, Sarah Bennett’s store, Make Do and Mend is doing rather well. It sells vintage, yes, but Sarah also knows the value of a good alteration. A lifelong sewing fanatic taught by her mother (who was, in turn, taught by her mother), she spent the first ten years of her working life in costume departments of the West End before embarking on this venture. The shop’s blend of vintage atelier and alterations pit-stop is a smart one, as anyone who’s ever fallen in love with a vintage piece only to find that they do not possess the vintage proportions to carry it off will note.

Sarah’s no exception. ‘There’s a bag of stuff in the wardrobe that I’ll hopefully one day get around to doing something with,’ she says. ‘I bought them because I loved the print or the pattern, but something wasn’t quite right. So, that’s where the idea of the shop came from: to see something you loved and get it altered or customized.’

Perhaps the problem is that we’ve lost the necessity to take matters into our own hands: the mistake we’re making is thinking of the high street as ‘ready to wear’, when it’s more a case of ‘ready to alter’. And, indeed, at Sarah’s boutique, she’s as likely to be altering a high street find as a vintage one.

Here’s the thing, then. It may well be worth hanging onto much loved clothing and storing it for future use - and alterations. It’s easy to think of clothing as being dispensable, but really it’s only as throwaway as we make it and now, with YouTube offering up countless tutorials for a seemingly infinite number of clothing catastrophes, and people like Sarah offering their services, there’s never been a better time to get cracking.

Picking up a needle and thread needn’t be radical or scary. In fact, catching those thinning threads in the knees of your jeans before they become great denim gashes may be no more than a little subtle act of sanity in this mad old world.

Make Do And Mend Boutique at Pop Brixton is playing host to a Kilo Sale on May 21, so pop along and see what you can find. Just don’t forget to pick up a spool of thread as well. Just in case.

If you need extra space for those items of clothing you adore and absolutely, positively will at some point get around to refashioning or repairing, then give Boxman a shout. As London’s self-storage company with a difference, they’ll deliver empty boxes to your door for you to fill with your vintage (or high street) treasures and will deliver them back again when the urge to repair strikes.