Last Saturday, December 2nd, Islington Climate Centre hosted one of our funnest events ever. Islington Council teamed up with clothing rental app Loanhood to host a fabulous clothing swap at the Centre - and boy, was it busy. One hundred people, swapping five items each, which means over 500 items at least were kept in circulation, out of landfill, valued for the raw materials, workhours and human and animal lives that each piece represents. And the quality of the stuff? Impeccable.
Fashion consumption is at an all-time high and rising, despite fashion being one of the most polluting (and arguably least necessary) industries on the planet. One hundred billion items are produced a year, mostly from fast fashion brands such as Shein, Boohoo, et al; over 90 percent of that is thrown away after a few wears, either into landfill or into incineration. Considering that almost ¾ of modern clothing is synthetically based, this leads to the extraordinary pollution of land, sea and air - most often in countries where the clothes have been dumped, harming the people and animals who have nothing to deserve this.
Did anyone see those piles of fast fashion on fire in the iconic Atacame Desert last year? Now you know why. Find out more here.
The aim of Loanhood (mantra: “We want to fix fashion, but let’s face it we still want our fashion fix and we still want to have fun”) is to collectively reduce fashion consumption and prolong the lifespan of clothing by championing creativity and style over newness. By increasing the number of times any garment is worn, environmental impact is reduced - PLUS literally every time you rewear something or rent it out or swap, you are literally saving money. Win, win, win and the planet is happy too. Loanhood has partnered with some of the leading brands and groups in sustainable fashion including Selfridges, Wild Swans and Love Not Landfill. We can't wait to welcome them back next year!