Raving and Repairing in LA

ON A SPRING EVENING IN LA’S ARTS DISTRICT, WE HOSTED A RAVE AT @TEG_MADE

– a woman-founded, values-led garment factory, that brought music, craft, connection and repair together.

So much of what raving is about is how we feel in the moment. Feeling the bass vibrating through our body as we dance until our legs hurt. Looking around and seeing the pure, unbridled joy on everyone’s faces. But raving is not just about the music or the people we’ve come with, but a feeling that we’re part of something bigger.

RAVING REPAIRS THE SOUL. IT BRINGS US TOGETHER.

And on Thursday, surrounded by the warm glow of our LA Miista Crowd we felt that pulsating, energetic collective connection on the factory floor.

It was a party with purpose that took a hedonistic attitude and added values.

We invited our guests to bring along their Miista clothing to be repaired or altered by a team of skilled artisans on-site, as they raved amongst the worktables and sewing machines to live DJ sets from @dj_dave____ @alima_lee, @banoffeemusic, and @olivekimoto

The environment was key. We wanted to make the process and the people behind the process visible by raving in a living labour ecosystem. Celebrating the work of the highly skilled garment workers, many of them immigrants, who sustain the LA industry (and are so often invisible and politically vulnerable) as well as our makers in Spain and Portugal who craft our clothing, shoes and accessories.

As the rave unfolded, we documented the action. Freeze-framing moments that we usually only feel, to extend their magic. The DJs deftly orchestrated the mood of the crowd as people danced on every surface, reinventing a working space into a euphoric one. The building literally shivered with excitement to the bass.

And as the evening built to a climatic high all we wanted was the night, like our favourite Miista clothes, to last forever.