ThredUp, the self-described world’s largest online consignment and thrift store, is feting what it claims is the first-ever clothing line designed for the circular economy.
Created expressly with resale in mind, Remade is being touted as a line of “brand new clothes with secondhand perks,” the company wrote in a blog post last week.
The inaugural collection—which ranges in price from $10 to $50 and is stocked in sizes extra-small through 3x—consists of seven classic wardrobe staples, including a boxy V-neck T-shirt, a shawl-collared cardigan, a floral-print wrap dress and a sleeveless partial-placket blouse.
ThredUp exhorts shoppers to mix and match these pieces with their favorite thrifted finds. Instead of disposing the pieces when a closet refresh is in order, customers are encouraged to “keep the sustainable fashion cycle going” by selling the garments back to ThredUp for an average 40 percent payout, guaranteed.
Each Remade article, ThredUp notes, includes a scannable label that allows it to “quickly re-enter the item back into the circular economy,” where products are meant to be refreshed, recirculated or recycled rather than sent to a landfill or incinerator.
“We imagine a world where everything produced gets reused again and again — and Remade is designed for just that,” said James Reinhart, founder and CEO of ThredUp. The name “Remade,” he added, speaks to the company’s vision of reviving clothing castoffs, reducing waste and “making the most of what we have.”
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Keeping clothing in rotation for longer is simply better for the environment, according to the Waste & Resources Action Program, a U.K. environmental nonprofit. Extending the life of a garment by just three months, for instance, can lead to a 5 percent to 10 percent reduction in its carbon, waste and water footprints.
Already, the product page for each garment includes options for buying new, “like new” and “gently used,” though the latter two are currently inactive. (The cost of non-new pieces will presumably be marked down from full price accordingly.)
Despite the “secondhand price tag,” Remade boasts a quality “comparable to brands you know and love (Diane von Furstenberg, J.Crew, Madewell), designed to last through multiple resale cycles but priced at a fraction of the retail cost,” said Lindsay Martinsen, the company’s merchandising style manager.
All styles are machine washable and do not need to be dry cleaned, ThredUp insists. Materials incorporated in the collection include polyester, cotton and modal, a type of rayon derived from beech trees.
“Remade clothing is a smart choice for our busy lives,” said Kathleen Weng, ThredUp’s vice president of merchandising. “[They’re] easy to look good in, easy to care for and easy to sell back and join the circular fashion economy.”