Writing this, as someone in the fashion industry, is somewhat tricky. Can an industry that relies on the turnover of clothes and a need for the new, really be sustainable?
Yes, I buy a lot of clothes. but I also love them. And hand on heart I have never thrown away any of my clothing. I pass onto friends and family, I donate to charity, I sell online or I do carboot sales. I love the idea of re-circling items and someone wearing something I have fallen out of favour with, and that person getting a little bargain along the way, too!
Anyway, I thought I’d mention a few new places that have appeared on my radar that are doing good things in terms of recycling and with a baby, now, I really understand the concept of a quick turnover clothes-wise, so have included a few new kids ones, too:
This is a bit like letting you in on a really exciting secret, as it hasn’t launched yet (set for the 21st September!). But this is a site dedicated to the exclusive resale of Influencer’s clothing, encouraging bloggers to remain eco-friendly, their clothes to have a longer lifespan and allow shoppers to get hold of sold out Ganni for a more affordable price. Everyone’s a winner.
There will limited time only sales, so you can sign up here to be notified, you’ll also get two hours of preview shopping before the site goes live to the general public on the morning of the 21st.
Set up by an ex Fashion Director and Fashion Stylist, this a such a clever concept for a kidswear store – you buy a product you love and when you’re ready to sell (or your child has grown out of it), send it back to them to resell and you get a voucher to re-shop. The only downside is that the smallest size is age 2 so Peggy will have to wait a little while!
Now obviously we all know about charity shopping, but I only recently discovered Fara for secondhand kidswear. They have 26 general stores and 14 for kidswear and it’s wonderfully edited: I picked up some baby Zara and brand new Gap for under £5 and friends have found Bonpoint, Baby Bjorn bouncers and Nike Air Max for kids!
All of Peggy’s clothes are recycled and reused, she wears all of her cousins’ old clothing and everything she has grown out of goes into the loft to pass on again.
This is the kind of thing you won’t have heard of until you have a baby, we didn’t even do NCT but everyone told us about these sales, it’s another perfect cycle where parents’ sell on no longer needed clothes/toys/gadgets which they don’t have space for and new parents can access products and clothes for a fraction of the price. Members (who pay a yearly fee) can access the sales early but other than that, they’re open to the public, but there are also lots of alternative Facebook pages for local communities, which have a similar system.
Without going into too much detail, as I feel I’ve covered these sites a lot on my blog in the past, my top ones are Vestiaire, eBay, Tictail (where I sell my old clothes, mainly ones that no longer fit post baby – and 10% of all sales go towards Alzheimers UK) and Gumtree (we use this more for furniture, especially with the new house).
And there are small things we can do on a daily basis, too.
Obviously, there are websites like Recycle Now that can offer help with recycling and finding your nearest textile banks, for example, shops like H&M offer vouchers in exchange for dropping off a bag of clothes, most charities take used stamps (I’ve been sending mine to the RSPB for years!), most coffee shops offer a discount if you take your own cup (you save 50p on a coffee in Pret) and Garnier are teaming up with Terracycle to help recycle used shampoo and beauty bottles.
If anyone has any other recommendations, please share in the comments and let’s try and keep this from just being a ‘fashionable’ topic at the moment and keep the circle going.
This is a great post Alex. Recycling in the fashion industry is something we are passionate about so it’s good to read about how you do it too!
We launched a scheme ‘The BAS Revival’ where people can send us their broken pieces of jewellery /beads and we remake into a BAS piece in exchange for a voucher to spend. We then sell it and a percentage of the profits go to nominated charities. We hope to breathe life into otherwise lifeless jewels and reduce waste! https://www.blackandsigi.com/bas-revival.html
We love charity shop buying too! And there is a local swap shop which is a fab concept.
Overall I think people are becoming more concilia and it’s great to see.
Clio xx
Love this post! I decided about 3 months ago that i was no longer going to buy any throw away fashion and instead buy great quality pieces that I love and will keep (which has the fortunate benefit of meaning I’m allowed to splurge on special items!) or if not this then I can buy second hand so I’m super excited about the resolution store !
Love your blog Alex, and really enjoy seeing posts like this that encourages people not just to keep buying stuff without thinking about their existing clothes!
Just wanted to add that you don’t have to be an NCT member to go to their sales! I’m not and I’ve been to loads and saved sooo much money. My daughter is 16 months and we’re lucky to live in a fairly affluent area so the bargains and quality of clothes is fantastic. And when I’m finished with popping out babies the clothes and other things will still have plenty of life in them to re-sell again. Winning! The only downside seems to be that she has a lot more pink than I would like (I refuse to but pink stuff first-hand) as it seems to be the only thing people buy, damn it!x
I probably should have added that NCT members get in 15minutes early, but then the flood gates are opened! Alternatively you can get early access by offering to volunteer (which I’ve not bothered with yet), and there’s still plenty of good stuff left as I think most people that go aren’t members, or at least that’s the case where I live.
This is so great to hear! x
Oh amazing! I’ll change that now – it didn’t seem obvious from their site (and I wasn’t about to pay for membership to find out!!) – yes my friends rave about the sales!
Yes – great idea! I still can’t bring myself as love too many trends, but I am still shopping less in the fast fast fashion such as Boohoo and Missguided. My only exception is Primark as there’s one in Wood Green and it’s quite good for Peggy and homewares!
We’ve starting an incentive at Disko Kids where we give customers a discount off a new kids T-shirt or sweatshirt purchase if they show they’ve passed a previously bought Disko Kids T-shirt to a sibling or friend as their child has grown out of it xx
Hello, Alex. Great post and very much on point for me right now.
Is it possible to get a link to your ebay page, please?
Thanks for the Little circle an Fara tips! All Kiki’s clothes go to her smaller friends and cousins, and most of her clothes come from her bigger cousin. I do however like to buy her cute stuff so buying second hand is great! By the rate she’s growing she might fit into Little circle stuff by next year 😀
I love this Alex (and am actually planning a post along the same lines) – it’s so important we all take steps towards reducing our environmental footprint, and as a blogger who promotes the purchase of new pieces, I do feel a responsibility to do so in a conscious way and one that promotes a longer lifespan of those pieces.
I also never ever throw any clothes away – I either sell via Vestiaire or Depop or donate to friends and charity. One charity I love is Dress for Success (they have UK and US branches I believe – https://dressforsuccessgl.org) and twice a year I send any of my ‘work’ clothes that I no longer wear to them – it helps women who are fleeing domestic violence or re-establishing themselves dress for an interview or a new job. I also send all my bras that no longer fit or that I no longer wear here: https://www.againstbreastcancer.org.uk/recycling/bra-recycling/ (and I think Bravisimo stores take them also) and they send them to Africa where they’re donated (I read that statistically a woman is less likely to be raped – and therefore less likely to contract HIV – if she is wearing a bra).
Finally, if something is too worn out to be sold or donated, I take them to H&M once a season where they either donate or recycle the textiles. Bonus: they take any textile too, so I even put in all our old socks, tights, tea towels, sheets, etc. And then once a year I take all our old towels and blankets to the local animal shelter where they always need these things to keep rescue animals comfy and warm.
I’ve also made sure I shop more consciously and try to only buy / keep something if I’m sure it will work in my wardrobe, with my lifestyle, and be worn and loved for years to come (it’s not always the easiest task with a blog, but it’s always my first thought when shopping).
Briony xx
Thanks so much for this post – it’s something that I’ve always tried to do. I buy quite a bit but don’t discriminate so that means boot sales/ebay/anywhere(!). It’s SO satisfying finding something cool on ebay especially for the babies and I always do a quick search there first before buying something from a shop as they just grow out of things so quickly that most things are good quality.
This is a fantastic post. I’ve worked in a women’s dress agency for many years and love the recycling of clothes it is so refreshing and exciting picking up something different.
Last year I had my first child and I realised they out grow their clothes sooo much quicker than we go off them! We are now launching our very own children’s clothing agency. ‘Little Raine-Preloved Drops’ You can buy or sell your children’s clothes and we are really trying to focus on stocking the beautiful smaller independent labels that are coming through at the moment. The high street for children can be a little dull at times but the smaller brands are amazing! Although a little pricier, which is where hopefully we can help…check out Little Raine preloved Drops on insta. x
This is a brilliant post, thanks for sharing. I would also add I love Loopster for buying and selling nearly new kids clothes.
Still in search of an excellent resale site for maternity wear (or clothes worn during pregnancy…). Stuff I wore for just 6 months that is still in brilliant nick ?
As well as Fara, Mary’s living and giving shops have also been brilliant for picking up bargains.
Have you heard of Traid second hand clothing shop?
A little bit more expensive but staff are paid and usually fashion and design students so are clothes and accessories are edited really well.
Hi Alex, thanks for all these ideas! Also check at your local hospice who may recycle old/broken jewellery, watches, foreign coins too. I don’t know if you already know but the British Heart Foundation recycles furniture and will collect it too ( I think the collection is free but best to check). Take your old glasses to branches of Spec Savers who send them to people in the third world.
Great post Alex,
I like the sound of the Garnier/Terracycle partnership. In addition to recycling shampoo and beauty bottles I’ve often wondered about all the hair and beauty products we buy and perhaps only use a couple of times. Great to recycle the bottles but pouring the contents down the sink is not great for the environment. A potential idea.
Aaaah B, this is amazing! Love all these – forgot about Dress For Success – I think they’re doing an exciting event soon, in fact! Must look into it more xxx
Aaaah thank you! To be honest I sell a lot of toot on eBay and haven’t posted for ages – my Tictail is far better – http://www.thefrugality.tictail.com (sold out at the mo but you can follow and it will alert of new items) x
Not heard of Loopster, will look into it! And yes – maternity clothes have SUCH a small lifespan! I’ve saved mine in case I’m ever pregnant again but feels so wasted sitting up in my loft! x
Oh these are so great! I have an old pair of glasses here! x
I have vaguely heard of it, but it sounds great – will look into it properly! Thank you xx
I’m such a cheapskate I use ALL beauty products to the end, even if I don’t like it or it brings me out in spots….I refuse to waste it!! Ha
Hi!
Do you know Hopaal ? It’s a French brand I saw yesterday on the French news, and they only make clothes 100% recycled!
( I’m not affiliated, just thought I’d share, as I think their concept is fabulous)
Oh amazing, I’ll take a look! x