Between 2000 and 2015 people bought 60% more clothes and discarded them in half the time.
In a bid to reduce the volume of clothes condemned to landfill, some charities joined forces last
year
and launched a campaign called moving the needle.
Historically, the charity sector is very competitive.
And one of the exciting opportunities provided by moving the needle is that,
Salvos, Red Cross and Vinnies are collaborating for the first time ever.
What is moving the needle?
It is the realization that the charities have a big part to play in what sustainability means.
That's really where it came from, they know that a whole bunch of stuff ends up in landfill.
They know we're over consuming, they know they can get access to a lot of second hand clothes that
they're not currently getting access to.
For example, if this top has another 50 wears in it, and I don't want it,
tomorrow I should give it to the Op Shop, because it can be appreciated and well loved and looked
after,
for however many more wears.
Rather than me saying, okay, I don't want it anymore. In the bin and next.
Large and small fashion brands joined the campaign.
So moving the needle, we thought that's just such a great initiative,
informing our customers of how they can keep things out of landfill.
All being diverted from landfill. How cool is that!? Wow!
I've got my home clothes which I'll waer until I can't wear them anymore.
There still in good condition. Excellent. Oh, that's cute.
So I've got a pile of those that I've brought in for rags and also there're some clothes that I've
got that I no longer fit into them.
So I brought them in for resale.
Great pieces, look. Okay, I think this one is for sale, charity sale.
Look sock, odd sock. That's what we like to see.
How do you get rid of your old odd socks?
Not not the bin, not the bin. That's for rags. Yes.
Where do you put them? So if we can be a part of of getting that message out there and providing
a space where we can talk about these things, it's great.
So we don't have a shopfront, because everything we make is made to order.
We're going to start trying on your clothes because that's what you're also here for.
Thank you.
So we've got your pieces for summer.
Yeah, should we start with a skirt? Yeah.
Okay, cool. This unique retail concept started seven years ago.
We were competitors at the time and even with a small business, you get leftover stock.
This was a good one, that T. Do you think we could do something like that.
So we were sitting in an outlet center and we were just quite miserable.
Looking at all of our stock.
There was so many other shops full of so much stock.
This is just totally wrong.
Like this is the graveyard of clothing here.
So we were like, Nah, we've got to change.
We have to find a new system that would not eventuate in stock leftover at the end of the
season,
which in the normal retail wholesale model is inevitable.
Okay, let's play.
We've really put the customer in the driver's seat.
So we design a collection and we invite our customers into have a look at it.
I've got pockets, you do have pockets.
They get to try everything on and they really dictate what we make.
Yeah, we don't have to do any guessing.
Should we try another top one with a skirt? Yeah,
They get what they want.
We would be satisfied with our offering.
And there would be no waste leftover.
That layup is looking really good too. Yeah, that's really cute.
How's that for a revolution?
So it's kind of going back to being the tailor. Oh great, that's good.
Sharp, very nice. Tada!
I love that. I love that too. You could bicycle a bicycle.
We really hope that we can be an example
of a business model that can work across different scales.
We hope that we can set the example for bigger companies that have the funds
to actually set up their manufacturing themselves whose we can't do that.
Then it's the way of the future. It's viable.