E15: Unfolding the fashion retail industry with Cally Russell

This is Unfolded is a new “brand” and a new form of shopping rolled into one. Though the concept is not new, the way the founders are doing retail is challenging the fashion retail industry for sure. Interested to know more….? OK – here is some more…

Episode notes:

The team behind This is Unfolded worked in the fashion industry for a long time and for many years had been playing their small part in chipping away at the inefficiencies and inequalities in the current model, trying to reduce waste and make a fairer system.

As the coronavirus pandemic started to take hold of the world last year, the fashion retail model broke down. Last May, in an attempt to help those who lost the most, ie factory workers who overnight lost their jobs and livelihoods due to the cancellation of high street retailers’ orders, the team came up with an idea. They launched a new project and named it aptly – the Lost Stock.

They set out to save those cancelled orders and clothes from landfills, and help struggling factories and garment workers by packing and selling “mystery boxes” of clothes. Their aim was to sell 10,000 mystery boxes of clothing made up of these cancelled orders by the end of 2020. It worked out a little better than they hoped…

Listen to the interview and find out more, such as:

  • how many mystery boxes were sold;
  • how they managed to sell the quantity they sold
  • what impact was created by the sales
  • what they thought of doing then
  • how they are unfolding the fashion retail industry.

Key takeaways:

  • This is Unfolded, matched people’s body type preferences with the clothes that would have otherwise been thrown away. Thus producing Mystery boxes.
  • Communities were built and 125 000 people came together, and through purchasing mystery boxes with clothing, helped several thousand families to survive through the pandemic.
  • 30% of garments are never worn (tossed away). This is Unfolded changed that by incorporating a new retail strategy.

Resources:

Website This is Unfolded
Instagram This is Unfolded

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