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Luxury

Selfridges, a sustainable department store? The UK luxury retailer aims for 45 per cent circular fashion sales – second-hand, recycled, repaired or rented – by 2030

STORYAgence France-Presse
Upmarket UK department store Selfridges just announced that it will focus on circular fashion going forwards. Photo: AP Photo
Upmarket UK department store Selfridges just announced that it will focus on circular fashion going forwards. Photo: AP Photo
Fashion

  • The famous chain, with its flagship on London’s Oxford Street, launched the Reselfridges scheme as part of its Project Earth policy, with a goal of going zero-carbon by 2040
  • The move comes amid criticism of the luxury sectors’ harmful impact on the environment as well as the plethora of online stores encouraging wasteful fast fashion

UK department store Selfridges said Friday, September 2, that it wants almost half of its sales to be products given a new lease of life as part of the upmarket retailer’s efforts to improve sustainability.

Selfridges’ goal is for 45 per cent of transactions to be for so-called “circular” goods and services – either second-hand, rented, repaired or recycled – by 2030, it said in a statement.
Customers looks at handbags on display in the mixed handbags sales inside the Selfridges department store during the Boxing Day sale on Oxford Street in London, UK, in 2015. Photo: Bloomberg
Customers looks at handbags on display in the mixed handbags sales inside the Selfridges department store during the Boxing Day sale on Oxford Street in London, UK, in 2015. Photo: Bloomberg
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The Reselfridge initiative will form the “backbone” of its future business, the retailer added.

The world-famous chain, with its flagship branch on London’s Oxford Street, said the move was part of a scheme to help it reach zero-carbon by 2040.

The scheme, for Selfridges’ four physical branches as well as its website, is part of the group’s broader Project Earth policy launched three years ago to improve sustainability.

“Our vision is to reinvent retail and create a more sustainable future, and Project Earth and our new targets underpin this,” said managing director Andrew Keith.

Customers line up outside Selfridges department store on Oxford Street in London, UK, in December 2015. Photo: Bloomberg
Customers line up outside Selfridges department store on Oxford Street in London, UK, in December 2015. Photo: Bloomberg
It comes as the global fashion and luxury goods sectors face growing criticism over their increasingly harmful impact on the environment.
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