Mira Blackman

I am an Ashkenazi Jew, and my connection to textiles and clothing care runs through generations of my family. My great-grandmother came to this country and walked the streets with a cart, working as a seamstress or tailor, a story that echoes the resilience and craft of so many Jewish women. My grandmother taught fashion design, and my mother sewed our clothing and was my first teacher in both sewing and the mindful tending of garments.

I don’t claim formal qualifications, I am simply inspired to share this practice. I have been making and caring for handmade clothing for over a decade, and mending is for me a sacred practice, a way to honor the earth, the labor that creates our clothing, and the generations who have tended garments before us.

I want to offer students practical mending skills, but also the opportunity to connect with the philosophy of stewardship, gratitude, and reverence for what we wear, continuing a lineage of care and intention.

Mira Blackman will be sharing Mending as Tending: Caring for Your Clothing.