Stylecrate

A response to the fast fashion pandemic

This young company is not exactly aimed at my clients, however I cannot resist a good news story!

Although I am vaguely aware of the new subscription and rental ideas now available this isn't an area I have explored before. Instantly I was curious when an old family friend began telling me about a young man who was setting up a sustainable menswear brand.

Very soon afterwards I was talking to Jonathon Burns about the inspiration behind this concept and his hopes for the future, our future:

"Two years ago, whilst studying at university, I was given the task of preparing a report on the fashion industry. At the time, the most involvement I had with the industry was hustling on Depop. I simply wasn’t prepared for what I was about to learn.

"What I did learn, absolutely shocked me. Let me give you some of the headline statistics:

• The fashion industry produces more carbon emissions than all international flights and maritime shipping combined.

• 20% of global wastewater comes from textile production.

• More than three fifths of clothing ends up in incinerators or landfill within a year of being produced

"It was that last point that really got me. Why go to all the trouble of producing something that’s only going to be thrown away?

"Something had to be done!

"What started as scribbles in the back of a notebook, became Stylecrate – a sustainable monthly clothing subscription for men’s fashion that champions wearing, sharing and repairing rather than buying, using and discarding.

"Every month a box arrives with clothes from some of the best sustainable brands. Subscribers get to wear the clothes for one month, at the end of which they can choose to send them back or purchase them. Returned clothes are redistributed to other subscribers to maximise the lifetime value of every garment.

"Stylecrate sources clothes from sustainable brands who have made commitments to reducing fashion’s environmental impact. Sustainable brands use organic and recycled materials and manufacture clothes in factories powered by renewable energy.

"Stylecrate aims to demonstrate that you don’t need to own clothes to be able to wear them. This subscription model allows you to refresh your wardrobe every month without it overflowing. People wear 20% of their clothes 80% of the time. This means that 80% of clothing is just lying around, unused at the back of a closet.

"By removing the commitment of ownership, Stylecrate can get the right clothes to the right people and reduce the number of garments that are thrown away each year.

"Stylecrate reimagines the way we experience fashion. It’s part of the greater reimagining of the entire economy. We are shifting from a linear economy to a circular one, where products at every stage of the production cycle are viewed with the same potential and where ownership of products is replaced by access to them instead.

Like every business, Stylecrate is a behavioural experiment. It is testing people’s responsiveness to current global issues, not by criticising their current way of life, but by presenting them with a viable alternative to the status quo."

I would love to hear what you think. Will his idea catch on? My son loves the products he is circulating.

Personally I find Jonathon's ideas fresh and exciting. Change is needed and he has found one elegant solution.

Would you be interested in a subscription box if it was aimed at your style personality?

(Please note this is not a paid for feature. We discovered this brand, liked it and my son has subscribed.)