Circular Fashion Is the Industry’s New Summer Finding
LONDON — It’s the summer of circular fashion.
British fashion brand Jigsaw, favored by the Duchess of Cambridge, is entering the world of circular fashion by partnering with rental and resale platform My Wardrobe HQ.
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Jigsaw is taking a leap of faith by launching a circular model that allows customers to rent and subscribe to the brand’s collections and to resell any of their own items.
The mission for Jigsaw is to inject 50 million pounds of preloved stock back into circulation. In the U.K., 13 million items of clothing end up in landfills per year. With this new venture, Jigsaw pairs itself with a resale platform that has also caught the attention of Arizona Muse, Poppy and Chloe Delevingne, and Carrie Johnson, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s wife, who got married in a rented Christos Costarellos embroidered tulle gown in 2021.
“With the secondary market growing 11 times faster than the primary, it feels commercially sensible to explore re-commerce; this is how customers want to shop,” said Beth Butterwick, chief executive officer at Jigsaw.
UMIT SAVACI / Courtesy of Jigsaw
Butterwick wants to get customers excited about wearing their garments again, and Jigsaw’s in-house research shows that customers value their products and keep them for years.
Jigsaw’s core demographic is middle-class Britain, but with a bohemian aesthetic that’s closer to the brands coming out of Denmark than out of Notting Hill, which is why an activation with MWHQ opens the brand to new audiences.
In the last two months, Tommy Hilfiger has joined the rental race by linking with MWHQ in June with sizes going up to a U.K. 22; and this month Tommy joined Rotaro, the cult rental site that’s worked with JW Anderson, Rixo, Rotate Birger Christensen and more. “We are committed to working directly with our brands to enable them to access their circular economy customers and we pride ourselves on our leading technology, innovative campaigns and engaged community,” said Georgie Hyatt, cofounder and CEO at Rotaro.
The British high street is joining rental services at a moment in time where a majority of luxury designer brands are already available on rental platforms.
While there’s no strong hunger for the high street to join rental services, the simultaneous resale aspect that sits alongside it makes it more appealing to loyal customers and new buyers.
& Other Stories has teamed up with rental marketplace Hurr on a curated selection of the brand’s collections. “We love the sustainability aspect of fashion rental and look forward to making our collections accessible to a wider fashion-loving community”, said Lina Soderqvist, managing director at & Other Stories.
For Burberry, the circular economy looks different — it’s an exercise in sustaining the brand’s strong heritage and British visibility by continuing to support creative communities in the U.K. as part of their ReBurberry Fabric program in partnership with the British Fashion Council.
Burberry will donate over 12,000 meters to more than 30 fashion schools and universities across the country.
“One of the BFC’s priorities is to encourage the industry to move toward a circular fashion economy while supporting excellence in fashion design,” said Caroline Rush, chief executive of the British Fashion Council.
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