End of summer retail news roundup—bumper edition
Retail is detail.
It’s the new season—don’t buy anything! Or if you want to, find the equivalent of the new season must-have in a second-hand store, à la Glenn Mae. Recommended for anyone in the market for suede or a barn/field coat this season.
There’s so much going on in the worlds of circular fashion and general retail so here’s a bumper edition of things that caught my eye or made me think over the past month. Aka cool people doing cool things.
Retail Radar—your roundup of the latest industry news
It’s Second-Hand September at Oxfam. Donate clothes to Oxfam to get a £5 off £35 spend M&S voucher (conditions apply).
HURR is now selling pre-loved bags.
Retailer repair services just keep coming. Adidas has launched Choose to Repair with The Seam, M&S Fixed by SOJO is now live, and GANNI has opened a Notting Hill store and is offering free embroidered customisation this weekend with SOJO. Go Josephine Phillips!
Tiffanie Darke of Rule of Five and It’s Not Sustainable has launched her book What To Wear and Why, “your guilt free guide to enjoying fashion”. Read an exclusive extract here.
Eshita Kabra-Davies, founder of By Rotation, is having a great month. She has been named “The Fashion Revolutionary” in Grazia UK’s fashion month edition. Earlier in the month, Kabra-Davies was a guest at Number 10 Downing Street to speak about her experience founding and growing her rental business.
Hush has passed the B Corp test. And the latest drop of pre-loved Hush items has just dropped at Reskinned. This takeback service is helping to keep clothes out of landfill.
Likewise, SuaySewShop in Los Angeles is turning discarded goretex jackets into tents to stop them going to landfill. Suay it forward. Clever.
Cornish brand, Seasalt, has also been certified as a B Corp* company, gaining more than 20 points over the minimum required. Impressive. (*Paywalled).
Farfetch shuttered its white label business, Farfetch Platform Solutions*, which offered end-to-end commerce solutions for brands and retailers including Harrods, Reebok, and Off-White. Their focus has moved to the Farfetch marketplace. (*Paywalled).
Reskinned, the pre-loved fashion market won the Re-commerce category in the 2024 Marie Claire UK Sustainability Awards for Fashion. Reskinned say, “The recognition really means the world to us, highlighting our unwavering commitment to making fashion circular.” See all the winners here.
Bella Webb, Vogue Business’ Sustainability Editor, is kicking off a new series called Business Unusual to highlight unusual methods brands are employing to disrupt status quo thinking.
A Polarn O. Pyret Used & Loved second hand kids clothes pop-up is open in Stockholm until the end of October. The range of pre-loved garments has been designed to be loved by at least three children. Extremely cute.
Polarn O. Pyret has also launched PO.P Reclaimed, a sustainable childrens’ collection using leftover fabrics to minimise waste and conserve resources.
Brittany Sierra of the Sustainable Fashion Forum is named as one of the Vogue Business 2024 100 Innovators: Sustainability Thought Leaders*. (*Paywalled). Check out her jobs board below.
Companies including Asos, Crocs, Nike and Canada Goose are scaling back their sustainability pledges*, and even firing their sustainability teams. Were they just greenwashing us all along? (*Create an account with HBR to read).
M&S launches The Parent Hood loyalty programme and say M&S clothes are good hand me downs.
Finisterre’s London repair workshop is now open. You can drop into their Neal Street store every Wednesday to Friday to chat to the Lived and Loved repair team about how to repair your clothing. You can book a slot here to guarantee you’ll be seen.
Tesco is implementing digital product passports for its F&F clothing range, showing where the materials were sourced from, in line with new EU supply chain transparency requirements*. (*Paywalled).
Kent designers Elvis & Kress are turning old fire hoses into bags to keep them out of landfill. Half of profits are shared with the Fire Fighters Charity.
Sézane launches a childrens range, Petit Sézane (but will it be any good?)
The beloved J.Crew catalogue is back! As Sarah Shapiro said, I wonder what the store footfall was like on launch day.
Sustainability Jobs
Did you know that the Sustainable Fashion Forum manages a jobs board? Here are some current opportunities:
GANNI is hiring a Sustainability Innovation Manager and a Social Impact Manager in Copenhagen
H&M is seeking a Sustainability & Communications Lead in NYC
Reformation is looking for a Product Sustainability Associate in California
Wolf & Badger want a Senior ESG & Sustainability Executive for Ethical Ecommerce in London
Coach seek a Sr. Analyst, Sustainability Trade Compliance for Coachtopia in NYC
Sustainable Fashion Events
HURR’s Product Director, Oliver McQuitty will discuss the launch of HURR Flex, and HURR’s product strategy in this webinar on 11 September.
The British Fashion Council (BFC) is hosting a webinar with the Competition and Markets Authority on green claims in the fashion industry on 19 September. Register now to hear from industry experts.
Finisterre will host a Sashiko Darning Workshop in London on 24 September. Tickets here. Sashiko looks wonderful on denim.
The BFC is also talking to Josephine Phillips of SOJO about implementing repair services in retail on 25 September. Register here.
Random but related
LEGO is hiring a Sustainable Materials Strategy Director to develop strategic recommendations on sustainable materials and balance environmental ambitions with commercial logic. This fascinating X thread (FKA Twitter) from Ed Conway, Sky news economics and data editor and author of Material World: A Sustainable Story of our Past and Future, shows why LEGO has a materials problem. I can’t stop thinking about it.
IKEA will launch a pre-owned marketplace to compete with eBay and help customers sell second-hand furniture to each other (while taking a commission on the sales).
French candle and fragrance brand Diptyque release their 2024 impact report, Imagining The Future. They’ve taken steps such as reformulating their products and banning the use of ingredients for environmental, social or ethical reasons.
That’s it for this edition of Top Lender. We’ll be back soon with a look into toxic materials in fashion and beauty inspired by some of the articles in this round up. I’m also excited to bring you an interview with one of the HURR’s top lenders very soon. Follow or Subscribe so they land in your inbox. And please comment with your thoughts and feedback on our little project. Thanks for reading!
So happy to see Ganni move away from virgin leather