New Look ventures into resale with Re-Fashion

High street fashion retailer New Look is reinforcing its commitment to circularity with its first venture into the pre-loved fashion market in partnership with Re-Fashion.

New Look is teaming up with re-sale platform Re-Fashion to offer customers a simple and easy way to extend the life cycle of unwanted or unused clothes, as part of its pledge to address the ongoing problems of textile waste in the industry.

With more than 350,000 tonnes of clothing from the UK ending up in landfill each year, New Look x Re-Fashion will allow customers to request a clothing donation bag, which holds up to 12 items, and then drop it off at the nearest Collect+ destination for free.

The unwanted clothes will then be “reborn” on the Re-Fashion website and put up for sale.

Sue Fairley, head of sustainability at New Look, said in a statement: “We recognise that, as a broad-appeal fashion retailer, we have an important responsibility to both our customers and to wider society, to consider the lifecycle of the products we sell, from design stage to end of life.

“As part of our ongoing commitment to reduce the environmental impacts of shopping for clothes and to promote circularity within the industry, we are excited to partner with Re-Fashion and offer our customers an easy and convenient way for them to get involved.”

As a token of thanks for playing their part, and to further promote the environmental benefits of purchasing pre-loved clothing, customers will be offered 30 percent off any purchase on Re-Fashion without having to wait for their item to sell.

Stephen Lyons at Re-Fashion added: “At Re-Fashion, we truly believe that the future of fashion is circular and we’re passionate about keeping clothing in the loop to address the ongoing problem of textile waste in the fashion industry.

“Partnering with New Look will help spread this vital message and hopefully inspire more people to give their unwanted clothes a new life and also experience first hand the quality and value second-hand clothing offers.”

The new venture is part of New Look’s ‘Kind to the Core’ initiative, a key pillar in the brand’s transformation strategy to become a more sustainable and responsible retailer. The retailer will also plant a tree for every bag donated in partnership with the charity Tree-Nation.