Stella McCartney Brand Book

STELLA McCARTNEY
THRIFTING
STELLA McCARTNEY
Stella McCartney and The RealReal have joined
forces in the hopes of implementing industry-wide
change on disposable consumption patterns with
a new initiative called “The Future of Fashion is
Circular”, shedding light on a “Make Well, Buy
Well, Resell” model.
The partnership itself is an unprecedented call-to-action in bringing awareness
to the circular economy and is designed to get people to start thinking differently
about fashion. Essentially, this marks the first time a luxury brand is
actively pushing for items to be consigned. By purchasing a quality, sustainable
product that retains value and then reselling it to a buyer or consignment store
like The RealReal once one is done with it, its lifespan increases significantly,
avoids landfills and is placed in the hands of another consumer.
“At Stella McCartney, we have been working for years to ensure that our supply
chains represent some of the most traceable and sustainable in fashion while also
continuing to ensure that our products, which are made to last, have long lives
and never end up as waste,” the designer said in a statement. “This campaign
is about raising the awareness on a circular approach to fashion. We alongside
The RealReal are making the commitment now and we can only hope that
others will follow.”
Indeed, the first-of-its-kind alliance even
includes an incentive for shoppers: They
will receive $100 to shop at Stella McCartney
stores if they consign any Stella Mc-
Cartney item to The RealReal.
Wainwright tells me the idea first came
about during talks with Kering, the
French conglomerate who recently sold
their 50% stake in Stella McCartney back
to McCartney herself. “I started talking to
Kering about this a long time ago because
they have sustainability in their platform
and they’re really trying to understand the
role of resale and how that fits into their
fashion cycle,” says Wainright. When she
then spoke with Stella, the two immediately
shared an understanding and knew
they had to work together.
“Now look, new is not going to go away. We don’t want it to go away. But I
think it’s just starting to think ‘Do I need to buy everything new or can I buy
some things in the secondary market,’ not just for fashion but for your home,
jewelry... You get a really good value when you buy secondary. If you just leave
a portion of your purchasing for it you’re going to help the planet immensely,”
she adds.
The initiative also lays the groundwork for other luxury brands, who have traditionally
been hesitant towards consignment, to emulate a similar program that
encourages a circular model. “It sounds risky I’m sure because they don’t really
fully embrace or understand that a strong secondary market really does support
the primary market,” says Wainwright. “I think it’s so scary because they’re not
reselling their own goods so they could feel that this will take away from their
market share. But here is what we’ve found in a lot of data at the Kering Group
in particular but also LVMH and their interest is that once people start buying
on our site or consigning, they’re really conscious of what that resell value is and
it can inform their purchases in the primary market. We’ve never had anyone
slow down their buying of new. They supplement their buying on our site and
they tend to buy things that they know they can resell,” she concludes.
On the partnership, Stella said, “Sustainability is important to us and I’m
excited to be partnering with the RealReal on this new sustainable program.
We believe that consignment, and re-commerce can play a significant part in
reducing the amount of raw materials that are required each year from our
planet. This is key in our commitment to becoming part of a more circular
economy. By ensuing that our products are used for the entirety of their lifecycle
it is possible to begin to slow down the amount of natural resources currently
being cultivated and extracted from the planet for the sake of fashion”.
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