Fashion Mart

Swedish fashion label Filippa K recently created a store which invites customers to donate their old Filipa K clothes to be resold in a dedicated Filipa K second hand store. What I particularly like about this is that customers receive commission if their old clothes are sold. 

Oxfam and Marks & Spencer similarly launched a scheme this year offering customers M&S vouchers for any M&S clothes they donated to Oxfam. I think this reward incentive is where ethical consumption is headed, it cannot be sustained or mass marketed by guilt. And as one of my icons Jane Shepherdson said on Twiggy's Fashion Exchange doc this week, 'conscience fashion' has got to make us feel good by making us look good. Out with the hemp sacks, in with the Stella vegan shoe boots (at Topshop prices please).

Talking of Topshop, this summer the brand trialled a 'Top Swop' event in conjunction with Rubbish magazine which invited customers to swap and update their old Topshop clothes. The concept looks set to be extended and Traid recycling depots are popping up around stores up and down the country too. 

I really like the idea of a second hand branded store that serves as a kind of fashion archive.