Written by Hannah Westwood
Welcome to this part of our slow fashion series! We will be bringing you a range of blog posts on how to cut down on fast fashion without missing out on buying clothes. If you missed our other posts in this series, you can read them here.
As always, the most sustainable things you can wear are the clothes you already own. However, cutting down on fast fashion does not mean you have to stop buying new (or pre-loved) clothes entirely. This series will cover our favourite ways and top tips for cutting down on fast fashion whilst still being able to buy some clothes. Remember though, even when buying clothes in a more sustainable way, you should think about how much wear you will get out of an item - if you are only going to wear it once, do you really need to buy it? Can you borrow it from a friend or make do without?
This post is about Lost Stock. You may have heard that many retailers cancelled orders of clothing over the lockdown period, as their stores were closed so they weren’t able to sell them. Not only did this leave many items of clothing in factories in Bangladesh with nowhere to go, but these brands were also not paying for garments that had already been ordered and made. This caused a crisis on two levels. Firstly, garment workers in Bangladesh (the vast majority of which are female) were left without wages on account of brands not paying for items. These garment workers already live in extreme poverty, and without these wages, would suffer even more. Secondly, millions of items of ‘cancelled clothing’ went unused, destined to end up in landfill, despite being perfectly wearable.
This is where Lost Stock comes in. Working in partnership with the SAJIDA Foundation, Lost Stock is buying up these cancelled clothes directly from the factories in Bangladesh, and donating money towards the wages of these garment workers. You can order a box, selecting some preferences (size, age, patterned or plain) for £35 plus shipping. This gives you a box of at least 3 items, with a combined retail price of about £70. By ordering, not only are you saving these clothing items from going to landfill, but your purchase will support a garment worker for a week. At the time of writing, over 118,000 boxes have been purchased. You can currently buy a male, female or children’s box, and there are options for Spring/Summer or Autumn/Winter boxes (which are slightly more expensive).
I loved the concept of Lost Stock as soon as I heard about it, and ordered a Spring/Summer box at the end of May. The boxes are supposed to arrive between 6 and 8 weeks after ordering, but Lost Stock were overwhelmed with orders and this timeline ended up being a lot longer. My bag finally arrived at the end of September, which was a complete surprise as I had not received any tracking information.
Unfortunately, I only liked one of the three items in the bag, but I was quickly able to make some swaps for them in the Lost Stock Reveal & Trade Facebook group. This process was definitely part of the fun of it, and I’m pleased to say that I was able to trade for items that I like and will wear, and the items I didn’t like have a new home where they will hopefully be worn too! These are the items I ended up with after swapping:
The item in the bag that I did like was unfortunately damaged (first image below), with one of the decorative flowers coming apart and unravelling the stitching of the top. However, I contacted Lost Stock and they sent me a replacement item (second image below), and I have kept the original item and will rework it so that it is no longer damaged. The replacement item also arrived fairly quickly, which was good considering how long it took to get the original items.
Pros
Supporting garment workers in Bangladesh
Saving clothes from going to landfill
Exciting to receive a mystery box
Clothes are worth more than the price of the box
Easy to swap with other people if you don’t like the items
Cons
Takes a long time to arrive (but a nice present to yourself in the future!)
You might not like all of the items
Plastic packaging - the bag they come in is compostable, but each item is wrapped in plastic inside
Costs extra to post when swapping items with others
Ships from Bangladesh so larger carbon footprint
Overall, the concept of Lost Stock is great, even if the execution is not as good (but you will still get your items eventually!) It is great to both be able to support garment workers with your purchase and save clothes from going to landfill for less than you would pay if you bought them in stores. It’s a win for the consumer as well as the environment (on some levels) and the garment workers who made them. There have been some negative reviews about Lost Stock out there, but as long as you are willing to wait for your items and make swaps, you won’t be disappointed. You can find out more, and order your own on their website loststock.com.
*Plan-It Change is not affiliated with Lost Stock and the opinions stated on the article are those of the author*