Stitch Up
Despite hundreds of seemingly distinct brands on our high streets, many clothing shops are actually owned by the same companies. While some brands have sustainable ranges and environmental promises, others under the same parent organisation are facing scandals about working conditions. Karen Millen’s new ‘ready for the future’ campaign, with recycled packaging? Owned by the same people who founded Boohoo – one of the worst offenders for fast fashion waste.
So who really owns who?
Among many other things, the pandemic has given us time to take a long hard look at our wardrobes, and finally do that long overdue clear out. Why not earn some extra cash by selling your castoff clothes?
British fashion designer Priya Ahluwalia, known for her sustainable approach, has won this year’s British Fashion Council/GQ Designer Menswear Fund.
The prize is a one-year business mentorship, free legal services and a cash injection of £150,000.
Was Clueless’s Cher on to something 25 years ago with her digitised wardrobe?
Clothes management apps like Save Your Wardrobe, Whering and Acloset might help you live out those Clueless fashion closet dreams. Many also say it’s helped them cut down on buying new, so we decided to take them for a test run.
These apps claim you can change your life by seeing every clothing item you own in one place. But when I open my wardrobe doors, this is basically what I get already. Granted, I have a chest of drawers, but it’s not as if my items are scattered around my house in such a way that it’s impossible for me to visualise my clothing collection.
Save Your Wardrobe says on its website: “Users will know what is inside their digital wardrobe at all times, possibly preventing them from buying items that might be similar to the ones they already own, and reducing the number of impulse purchases.” Arguably, if you have so many clothes that you can’t remember whether or not you own a similar item to one you’re about to buy in a shop, then you have too many.
I was sceptical, but I do enjoy organising things, and I hate to think of clothing items collecting dust at the back of my wardrobe because I’ve forgotten I own them. Downloading the app is easy, but you then have to spend a good chunk of a day inputting your entire wardrobe.
As a test, I took a photo of my sunflower print skirt. I was expecting it to pick up at least some information, at least the fact that it was a skirt, but alas, I had to input all the information myself.
I like the “Services” tab, which has links to sustainable clothing brands, so if you are going to buy new, at least you can do it responsibly. There are also suggestions for where to get your clothes cleaned, repaired and altered, or where to donate unwanted items. They even have links to mending tutorials so you can upcycle things yourself.
Once the majority of my clothes were in the app, I could log different outfits, but I would rather try them on to get an accurate outfit view rather than a disproportionate collage of my different clothes items on top of each other on my phone screen.
When I remembered to check the app before getting dressed, it did make me consider new outfits. It also gave me an appreciation for how many clothes I do already own, and would probably stop me buying something new unless it was a really unique item.
Verdict: 7/10
I was disappointed again when the AI which “analysed” the same photo of my skirt but did not come back with any information.
On the Acloset homepage there is an outfit recommendation, which uses your location to recommend based on the weather. This is helpful, but I can just as easily look out my window or check my own weather app on my phone.
There is also a calendar feature which shows you what you have worn for the past week. I enjoyed looking back at my past outfits as I do forget what I’ve worn, and it didn’t put me off repeating them.
Verdict: 6/10
With Whering, you first fill out a short multiple-choice survey about your style. The rest of the app is almost the same as the other two. There are sustainability-encouraging phrases dotted around the app (e.g. “Outfit repeating? Totally cool”) which are well-meaning but come off as slightly patronising.
Whering also has Shopping, Services and Tips tabs, but these aren’t as well developed as Save Your Wardrobe’s and only have a couple of links in each.
The app was quite slow and often shut down unexpectedly, which made for a frustrating user experience.
Verdict: 4/10
Overall, I think these apps are a good idea, if you can be bothered to use them. Making a general effort to look at all your clothes and buy less will probably achieve the same results. The less established apps feel a bit gimmicky, and it’s really just another reason to stare at your phone screen. Is this really helping or is it just a colossal waste of time? The jury’s out.
When was the last time you ordered something online in multiple sizes, or extra items to get free delivery, knowing full well you’d return at least some of it?
It’s something many of us are guilty of. With free returns, QR codes and drop-off points, it’s easier than ever to return unwanted items and many of us will deliberately overorder as a result. Because of this, online returns are due to rise to £5.6bn by 2023, with fashion and footwear as the main drivers, a 2018 study by GlobalData has found.
We all know the feeling. You’ve tried on everything in your wardrobe and yet, you have nothing to wear. A whole new outfit could be closer to home than you think. Try raiding someones else’s wardrobe (with permission, of course) instead of reaching for the ASOS website – you might be surprised at how good you look in someone else’s clothes.
To get you feeling inspired, Stitch Up! challenged our editorial team and readers to steal the style of someone a little unexpected and rate what they found.
I was always a crafty child, in the creative sense of the word. I loved making things. My speciality was making little heart-shaped sachets out of felt, filling them with lavender which my mum would then receive for about a decade’s worth of birthdays. One year I even made her a miniature rocking chair completely out of clothes pegs. Don’t ask me why.
Miguel Munoz wants to clean up the ocean with clothes. In response to the huge amount of plastic being dumped into the ocean, Munoz has just launched Kromo Menswear, a sustainable menswear brand with a mission.