As a long-time fan of pre-loved fashion — my Saturday mornings growing up would consist of driving around to yard sales with my mum, looking for quality, second-hand fashion — not to mention, a frequent shopper on The Iconic, I personally couldn’t be more pleased to share this news: the e-tailer has created a first-of-its-kind innovation that lets customers seamlessly resell, rent or recycle their preloved fashion.
Created in partnership with AirRobe, the dedicated widget lets customers easily extend the life cycle of their fashion items, without having to do much of the heavy lifting themselves. Everything from the product description and images, to the suggested price, are taken care of by AirRobe during the transaction process.
“Our customers now have the opportunity to think about their garment’s life cycle at the point of purchase,” says Jacquie Fegent-McGeachle, The Iconic’s adaptive edit lead and head of sustainability.
“This not only encourages conscious shopping and choices, it enables our customers to easily play a part in a circular fashion system that keeps clothing out of landfill, which is a major issue in Australia.”
“Together, [The Iconic and AirRobe] join forces to accelerate the circular fashion movement, by providing Iconic customers with a seamless solution to shop more responsibly, extend the life cycle of their preloved fashion items and reduce the overall cost of their garments,” says The Iconic CEO Erica Berchtold.
“This milestone brings us one step closer to addressing industry-wide sustainability challenges and further demonstrates our commitment to becoming the most planet positive retailer in ANZ.”
The founder and CEO of AirRobe, Hannon Comazzetto, called the launch a big moment for the circular fashion economy. “It’s been great to see The Iconic’s true commitment to sustainability and leadership towards a circular ecosystem,” he said.
So, how exactly does it work? Well, when you’re buying your items on The Iconic’s site, toggle yes to add them to your Circular Wardrobe on AirRobe. You can either do this when you add the item to your cart or at the end, when all the items are in your cart and you’re ready to buy.
Once you’ve completed your purchase, all items that you’ve added to the Circular Wardrobe are now eligible to be resold, rented out or recycled on AirRobe. Because it’s separate from The Iconic, you’ll need to set up an account on AirRobe, which you can do from the welcome email they’ll automatically send you after your purchase.
The final step is that when you’re ready to sell, rent out or recycle your clothes, you’ll do so on AirRobe’s marketplace. Note that to use the functionality, you’ll need to buy your items through The Iconic’s website and not its app (for the time being, that is). You can view all the steps in action in this short clip on AirRobe Circular Wardrobe, here.
Let’s hope this paves the way for other retailers and e-tailers to create similar initiatives to reduce fashion waste and encourage second-hand wearing.
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