By Jennifer Sieg
Fast fashion retailer H&M is to sell secondhand clothes at its Regent Street flagship store from October — offering items that are “ready to be loved again”.
The Swedish clothing giant will feature a range of clothes and accessories from H&M and beyond as part of its “pre-loved” initiative.
The industry has been under mounting pressure from the public, environmentalists and governments to improve sustainability.
In July, H&M and its rivals, Zara and Primark, were criticised for their part in causing overflowing landfills around the world.
Henrik Nordvall, H&M’s country manager for the UK & Ireland, said: “The opportunity to give a second life to garments brings real value to our customers and enables them to explore different ways of engaging in a circular fashion industry.”
Last November H&M announced a rental service at its Regent Street store. But this most recent sustainability push comes in the wake of an EU drive to “reduce, reuse, and recycle textile waste”.
Every year the EU generates 12.6m tonnes of textile waste, a fact that led the European Commission to report: “Clothing and footwear alone accounts for 5.2m tonnes of waste, equivalent to 12kg of waste per person every year.
“Only 22% of post-consumer textile waste is collected separately for re-use or recycling, while the remainder is often incinerated or landfilled.”
An attempt to tackle the blight of fast fashion with pre-loved clothing isn’t completely new to the high street. Last year Primark partnered with Wornwall, a vintage wholesaler, allowing customers to shop “Primark and pre-loved at the same time”.
A commentary this week from the London School of Economics said the UK was the third largest exporter of used clothing in 2021 worldwide and spent the third largest amount on clothing and footwear in 2020, behind the US and China — despite being ranked 21st in population size.
