Circularity
MoP’s Top Tips
Washing
Washing your clothes uses an awful lot of water. We’re not suggesting we stop washing altogether, but you probably don’t need to be washing your clothes as much as you think you do. You can spot clean, try airing them, or hand washing to cut down on water consumption. Also where possible hang dry your clothes rather than tumble drying them.
Dry Cleaning
Most dry cleaners use a dangerous chemical called Perchloroethylene (Perc) - this is not only dangerous for the environment but for the dry cleaners themselves.
Laundry Republic use environmentally friendly dry cleaning alternatives, which in turn are better for your clothes. They also use biodegradeable plastic bags to send your clothes back home in.
Repairing
Repairing your clothes is an easy and effective way of giving your garment’s life an extension. You don’t need to be a fashion graduate to fix a tear or replace a button, and these small things could mean you and your garment have many more happy years together. There’s research into hand stitching triggering a serotonin release in the brain too, so what’s not to love!
Donating
Don’t leave me hanging! When you have fallen out of love with any of your clothes, please donate them to someone who is in need. There are loads of charities set up to take your unwanted clothes away from you, but one of the local charities we believe in is Smart Works: "Smart Works is a UK charity that provides high quality interview clothes, styling advice and interview training to women in need. We give women the confidence, the self-belief and the practical tools they require to succeed at interview and start a new chapter of their life."
Recycling
Whether that’s sending your pre loved garments to a recycling plant to be broken down and used for something new or giving your unwanted garments to a new home, recycling is a very essential part that we can all play in trying to clean up the fashion world.
We have made a conscious effort to use as many natural fibres in our collections as we know these will biodegrade much faster and in a less damaging way than synthetic fibres (synthetic fibres release methane when breaking down on landfill, a harmful greenhouse gas). However, it is not possible to make all fabrics using natural fibres. There is more and more research being done into recycling synthetic fibres, but we haven’t quite got there yet, on a small scale.