M&S Shwopping mosaic flag

Over the weekend, Marks & Spencer got behind Team GB and the Olympics success by creating a giant piece of clothing art to promote its Shwopping imitative, which encourages consumers to recycle old clothes.

The giant union jack flag ‘mosaic’ was made using 2,100 unwanted items of recycled red, white and blue clothes donated to the Shwopping clothes recycling project, which benefits Oxfam. The retailer joined forces with local volunteering group Elevation Networks and charity partner Oxfam to create the world’s largest Union Jack flag clothes mosaic which measured 20 by 10 metres in an East London park.

The image was created in less than two hours, as they aimed to complete their task before the winner of the 10km Open Water Swim at the Serpentine crossed the finish line.

Shwopping, which was launched earlier in the year by Joanna Lumley, asks shoppers to hand in an unwanted piece of clothing to an M&S store every time they buy a new one. The campaign aims to put an end to the one billion items currently ending up in landfill every year.

All the items used in the creation of the flag will be reused, resold or recycled by Oxfam.