Zara moves into the pre-owned clothing business

Fashion brand Zara has decided to venture into the business of pre-owned clothing. The company will start to offer repair, resale and donations services in the UK, quoted on Bloomberg.  Zara’s parent company Inditex's move into a more sustainable approach is a departure from its fast-fashion image. 

As part of the new offering, customers will then have the option to repair their Zara clothing from any season which includes replacing buttons, zips and seams both online or in a physical Zara store. Customers are also able to resell and purchase worn Zara garments utilising a new secure platform and make a clothing donation of any brand to charity. This initiative starts in November. Clothing items can be donated through home collection and they will be sent to the Red Cross, an organisation which reuses or recycles them. 

Launching of resale platforms for fashion brands have become more common in this day and age as fast-fashion brands look to come across more sustainable given the textile industry contributes around 10% of global carbon emission.

Most recently, SHEIN also launched SHEIN Exchange, an integrated online peer-to-peer resale destination to buy and sell previously owned SHEIN products. The goal of SHEIN Exchange is to meet community demand by providing a one-stop destination for customers to become active participants in circularity and promote the benefits of purchasing pre-owned clothing over purchasing new items.

Zara was also recently caught up in a little controversy in Manilla. The brand apologised for an employee not allowing a trans woman into the women’s fitting room, after the consumer posted a video of the incident where she was asked her to use the men’s fitting room.  Since the video came to light, a brand representative invited the consumer back to offer perspectives on staff gender sensitivity training. 

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