You Can Do It Too! - A Manifesto for DIY Culture

"DIY Culture" is a new name for an old idea. The concept of mending or reusing items has been around for as long as there have been items to mend, but in a time where consumption is prioritised over quality and companies have a vested interest in making people think they need more of everything, it has become as vital as ever.

While DIY culture is sometimes treated as quite a recent phenomenon, it is actually a centuries old idea. One of the first written records encouraging readers to "do it yourself" was the book "Mechanick Exercises" published by hydrographer Joseph Moxon in 1683. The book included instructions for acquiring skills such as map and mathematic instrument making, blacksmithing, metal casting, drawing, and woodworking, and its contents would have helped pass on some very useful skills to people who may never have had the chance to the learn them otherwise (Science Museum, 2020).

More recent examples include the "Make Do and Mend" scheme, introduced in the wake of World War Two in order to free up more factory space and workers by limiting the production of clothing and reassigning this space and labour for items that would assist in the war (Imperial War Museum, 2025). Citizens were encouraged to mend clothes instead of throwing them away, and older clothes or less worn items would often be cut up and used as materials for new pieces. As the Imperial War Museum points out, this limitation in clothing not only pushed people to make and mend their own clothes, but also saw people take on new skills such as knitting and jewellery creation, with the latter being used to "refresh or smarten up an outfit" that had been worn many times before.

Additionally, DIY is a staple of the punk subculture, and some even consider it to be "one of the most important factors fuelling the subculture" (Moran, 2021). Since the punk subculture was formed in response to the widespread consumerism and control of record labels, it aimed to "dismantle the musical establishment and start anew" (Forrest, 2024), and so it made sense for the prevailing attitude to be one of grassroots and independent creation. Fanzines and posters were produced by individual fans, albums were recorded and released by small independent labels, battle jackets allowed people to mix interests and have creative control over their clothes as opposed to buying multiple band t-shirts, and independent venues helped host smaller bands that were just starting out.

This brings us to today, where DIY is arguably more necessary than ever. The concept of planned obsolescence describes products being intentionally designed to have shorter life spans, work less well towards the end of their life spans, or be impossible to repair. This concept was initially suggested by Bernard London in the 1930s, who proposed that the US make it compulsory by law, so that durable products would no longer reduce consumption and people would be encouraged to buy more items with higher frequency, benefitting the economy (McVeigh et al, 2019). This has created the economy we know today, where items are deliberately built to a lower standard or with lower quality materials, to ensure that the buyer will have to spend more to replace them after a shorter amount of time. One example of this is Apple admitting in 2016 that earlier iPhone models had built-in software that began to slow down functions after some time had passed (McVeigh et al, 2019), often ensuring that users would feel the need to upgrade to the latest model as they believed that their current phone had simply gotten old and would no longer work. As writer Jeff Sparrow points out, the slogan "ending is better than mending" works just as well in real life as it does in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, the dystopia novel that created it.

Alongside this, especially in the fashion sector, it has become more acceptable to release multiple seasons of clothing per year, outside of the usual two, to encourage continual purchasing year-round from consumers (Bly et al, 2015). This method of creating and selling encourages novelty and new-ness over quality and personal taste, forcing consumers to feel as though they have to purchase the newest collection or risk missing out both on new products and on the sense of community gained from sharing this experience with others.

Overall, this has led to people becoming more disengaged from the products they buy, the effort and resources that go into creating them, and the value (emotional and practical) that they should hold. An additional side effect of this is that the constant need for new products requires more and more resources, and the fact that these products get replaced just as quickly only exacerbates the problem. McVeigh et all analyse a 2019 report by the Global Resources Outlook which concludes that "resource extraction and processing to materials, fuels, and good make up about half of the total global greenhouse gas emissions... and more than 90 percent of biodiversity loss and water stress". The massive impact that our overuse of resources is having on the environment is just as much reason to try and find ways to make the things we already have last longer.

In the face of all this, researchers have started to propose ideas such as "slow fashion" (Fletcher, 2008) which uses the idea of slowing things down as a stand in for giving people time to engage with the resources and processes that go into creating items for consumption. Fletcher argues that a "slow" approach to fashion and other fields would prioritise "small-scale production, traditional craft techniques, local materials and markets", all things that would allow people to become more familiar with the work that goes into creating items, while also limiting over-consumption of items and resources. I agree that this localising of crafts could only help to strengthen general understandings of the effort that goes into creating items, and could also lessen the barrier to entry for engaging with DIY culture. Additionally, learning to create things for yourself would also help strengthen the idea of DIY being a "meaning-making" process (de Waal & Smal, 2024) for those engaging with it, highlighting benefits beyond just the item at the end of the process. Another interesting idea is the concept of "DI4Y²" ("do-it-for-yourself-and-others"), proposed by de Waal and Smal who, through their analysis of the concept as a potential way of running a business, propose that this focus on demystifying the relationships between resources, effort, skill, and the final product, could be a responsible way to create and distribute products among a community, and not just for yourself.

It is with all these points in mind that I propose a manifesto for DIY culture:

Figure 1 - You Can Do It Too! A Manifesto for DIY Culture by Lou Hayter (2025)

1. Let your first thought be “Can I mend this?”

In a world of planned obsolescence, the things we buy may not last as long as we expect them to. However, some wear and tear doesn’t always mean the end of the road! When something you own and love breaks, instead of immediately throwing it away and replacing it, ask yourself… “Can I mend this?”. You may realise you have the skill to repair it, or you may realise that the skills needed to repair it aren’t all that hard to learn!

2. Reuse and repurpose!

Some things are designed with a very specific purpose in mind, others can be far more flexible than you expect. Especially with items that can’t be recycled, consider whether things that seem to have served their purpose can now be given a new purpose! Could that old bottle become a plant pot? Maybe that beyond-fixing t-shirt would make a cute cushion? It’s a lot of fun to try and find a new purpose for older things!

3. Teach yourself something new!

The tricky part of “doing it yourself” can be figuring out exactly what it is that you yourself are meant to do. When an opportunity for DIY arises, see if the necessary skills can be learned with some help and practice, and take this as an opportunity to learn something new! Especially with the help of the internet, it’s possible to learn anything from sewing to steam bending with a bit of time!

4. Reach out FOR help!

The concept of “doing it yourself” can be a little bit misleading, as often skills and projects may require help or advice from others. The best way to turn away from always buying mass-produced things, is to turn towards local makers and DIY-ers! See if there are groups in your local area based around skills or skill-sharing, see if any of your friends share a similar interest in DIY, find forums or online groups that share ideas and advice. Being part of a local or worldwide community will help you see things from a different angle.

5. Reach out TO help!

Accept help and advice from others, but also share it! DIY culture and communities are two way streets based on everyone working together. Those skills you’ve learned along the way will come in handy not just for you, but for the people you know! Use your skills to help others, or pass them on to others. Every person sharing their tips, tricks, and hacks can only ever help the people they share them with!

6. SHARE! SHARE! SHARE!

Share! Share solutions! Share tutorials! Share advice! Share resources, materials, tools, and manuals! Share tips and tricks you learned the long way round with beginners! Share new developments with experts! Share details of local craftspeople or independent stores that sell items you need! Help your local communities become full of shared resources and ideas!

7. Do it yourself, do it your way!

One of the best parts of doing it yourself is that usually the only audience you have to want to impress is yourself. Develop your style and your sense of what you like, feel confident in your ability to tailor and alter things to suit your tastes. Experiment with new ideas, free from any expectation beyond learning! You’ll know you’re doing it right when you enjoy the process just as much as the final product.

Sources:

de Waal, D. & Smal, D. (2024, August). Re-thinking do-it-yourself: An ontological approach to sustainability in fashion design praxis. DIY, Alternative Cultures & Society, Volume 2, (Issue 2), https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/27538702241238775

Fletcher, K. (2010, November). Slow Fashion: An Invitation for Systems Change. Fashion Practice. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kate-Fletcher-6/publication/233596614_Slow_Fashion_An_Invitation_for_Systems_Change/links/570536f008aef745f71736b7/Slow-Fashion-An-Invitation-for-Systems-Change.pdf

Forrest, B. (2024, March 14). Anarchy in the music industry: How did the DIY ethos of punk arise?. Far Out Magazine. https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/how-diy-ethos-of-punk-arise/

Imperial War Museum. (2025). 10 Top Tips For Winning At "Make Do And Mend" https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/10-top-tips-for-winning-at-make-do-and-mend

McVeigh, M. K., Dalhammar, C., Richter, J. L. (2019). Planned Obsolescence: Built not to last. European Liberal Forum asbl. https://liberalforum.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Planed-Obsecluance_84p_110x178.pdf

Moran, I. P. (2021). Punk: The Do-It-Yourself Subculture. Western Connecticut State University. https://westcollections.wcsu.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/10f277ba-03ad-49fc-8e3f-43712aca337d/content

Science Museum. (2025). A Brief History of DIY, From the Shed to the Maker Movement. https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/everyday-wonders/brief-history-diy

Sparrow, J. (2021, March 16). Ending over mending: planned obsolescence is killing the planet. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/17/ending-over-mending-planned-obsolescence-is-killing-the-planet

Figures:

Figure 1 - Hayter, L. (2025). You Can Do It Too! A Manifesto for DIY Culture [Digital collage].