Craft & everyday life / Britain / Canada
A stitch, a different way of looking
We cannot call it a global boom. But two university programmes offer a glimpse of how sashiko is being introduced beyond Japan.
Is sashiko having a moment outside Japan?
We began with that question. It would have been satisfying to find a number, draw an upward line and announce a trend. What we found instead was smaller, but worth sharing: a workshop at a climate festival in London, and an invitation to repair clothes at a Canadian university.
These examples do not tell us how many people practise sashiko, whether sales are rising, or how widely it is known. They do show something more specific: the settings in which this Japanese stitching practice is being introduced, and the questions being asked around it.
A needle at a climate festival
On 20 March 2025, Birkbeck, University of London, hosted a sashiko mending workshop as part of its Climate Festival. Led by artist and facilitator Mika Sembongi, the session brought participants together to learn patching and stitching.
In its report, published on 10 April 2025, the university framed the event around repair rather than replacement. The writer connected the work of attending to damaged clothing with broader questions about environmental harm and care. That connection is the report's interpretation of the workshop, not evidence that stitching itself resolves those problems. Read Birkbeck's account.
What caught our attention was the setting. Here, sashiko was not only something to learn about Japan. It was a way into a conversation about how to live with things that have been worn or damaged.
Bring a garment, not just your curiosity
The University of British Columbia's Slow Fashion programme listed a visible-mending workshop for 23 January 2026. Its invitation described learning to repair clothing using sashiko stitching, with participants welcome to bring their own garments or use supplied fabric. It named interdisciplinary designer Bianca Del Rio Kodato and programme assistant Kairn Zhou as the facilitators. Read UBC's workshop listing.
This is an event announcement, not a report of attendance or outcomes. We do not know how many people came, or what they went on to make.
Still, the invitation offers a revealing detail: bring your own clothes. The point of entry was an object already in someone's life. A Japanese practice was being introduced through a familiar question: what could I do with this garment, rather than replace it?
What travels with a stitch?
Our reading of these two examples is not that everyone abroad now understands sashiko in the same way. It is that a practice can meet different concerns as it travels. In these programmes, repair and the life of clothing provide the frame.
That frame deserves attention, but it also has limits. We should not treat these workshops as a complete account of sashiko, or use “sashiko” and “visible mending” as interchangeable labels. They tell us how particular organisers introduce the practice, not everything it means to the people who make and teach it in Japan.
The next question is therefore not simply whether sashiko is becoming popular. It is what people notice when they encounter it. The pattern? The pleasure of making? The possibility of keeping a favourite garment? And what might a maker in Japan want to add to that conversation?
An observation, not a verdict
Two programmes cannot establish an international boom. We have not measured search interest, sales growth or participation over time. Nor do these examples demonstrate demand for any particular kit or brand.
But we do not need to declare a movement to notice an encounter. In London and Vancouver, organisers have placed Japanese stitching alongside questions about repair and everyday life.
For now, that is the small discovery we want to put on the desk.
When a familiar practice travels, what becomes newly visible?
Sources and editorial note
- Birkbeck, University of London: workshop held 20 March 2025; report published 10 April 2025. Linked above.
- University of British Columbia: workshop advertised for 23 January 2026. Linked above; attendance and completion not independently verified.
- Sources checked 10 September 2026. This article is based on public material, not interviews or first-hand attendance. Neither institution is presented as a JRD partner. No private business correspondence was used.
Editor-in-Chief: Aki / Research and writing: Desk (AI assistant). Developed from conversations in the JRD editorial room.
An open question
What caught
your eye?
An observation, a question, a possibility.
No project required. Curiosity is enough.