4 ways to re-use, renew and re-think your approach to fashion

The clothing industry has a huge impact on the planet: around 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions are from textile production alone, while fashion production is responsible for almost 20% of global waste water. These are sobering stats that should make everyone question how much they consume and the provenance of every item.

But there are some brands who are raising the bar when it comes to environmental practices, both by challenging harmful manufacturing methods and ensuring ethical supply chains. We’re proud to stock a few of them, so it feels timely to champion their work. Keep reading for your essential crib sheet.

‘Buy less, buy better’ is a mantra we should all take heed of when we're thinking about new buys. And nothing sums up ‘better’ than a Barbour waxed jacket. A timeless classic, it’s a wardrobe staple universally loved by royalty, urbanite celebrities and farmers alike. Proudly made in South Shields, a Barbour jacket should be re-waxed annually to make sure it stays weatherproof. Until now, this service involved sending a jacket off to the Barbour HQ (2022 marks the 100th anniversary of the service), or a DIY job at home with a tin of wax (with extra points if done so wearing a branded apron!). But for the first time, Barbour ReWax is coming to John Lewis & Partners stores, with customers able to take advantage of a professional and restorative wax at the following branches: Cheadle, Leeds, Cardiff and Peter Jones (London).

London womenswear brand Baukjen has impressively been forging its way in reducing its environmental impact, from only working with ethically approved EU factories (most of its clothes are made in Portugal) to switching to responsibly sourced, recycled or surplus fabrics. And not only is it a carbon negative, B-certified corporation (which means it meets high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability), it also recently won a UN Global Climate Action Award. Exclusively stocked at John Lewis & Partners, to mark Earth Day (22 April) it created a special capsule comprising seven desirable pieces to take you into summer and beyond, with 15% of the proceeds from every sale until 14 May going to the charity Cool Earth.

If only recycling unwanted textiles into new clothes was as simple as it sounds. Most often, the mixed composition of clothing makes them hard to recycle (take a pair of cotton jeans, which will be blended with Elastane for stretch, for example), but some fibres can be ‘downcycled’ as composite fibres for other materials, such as thermal insulation. Which is what makes accessories brand Radley’s Weaver Street collection so clever. Taking three of its most popular bag shapes, these are made simply using leather offcuts from the factory floor, which have been hand-woven to create a graphic and textured surface. ‘Leftovers’ never looked so chic.

Creating long-lasting and low-impact menswear engineered from the most sustainable raw materials is the driving force behind New Zealand brand Rodd & Gunn (which, again, you can only find here). Careful sourcing is top of the company’s agenda: it only uses traceable cotton from farms in the USA or Australia; its organic linen is grown in France; and its wool comes from farms with high standards in animal welfare and land management. And all its factories are audited, to boot.