Marks & Spencer has announced it will offer a dedicated clothing repair service for the first time.
Only 10 per cent of the population are confident enough to repair clothes themselves, with 60 per cent of consumers looking to retailers to offer more services to help them reduce their carbon footprint, according to new findings from a supermarket.
As a result, M&S has partnered with clothing repair and alteration specialists, SOJO.
The retailer said: “Through a dedicated online hub, M&S customers will be able to choose and book a range of bespoke repairs – from zip replacements to invisible knitwear repairs – all through one simple online form.
M&S has a long-standing clothing donation partnership with Oxfam
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“With repairs starting from just £5, M&S garments can be shipped, repaired by SOJO’s in-house repair team and returned direct to the customer within seven to 10 days.
“Founded in 2021 by Josephine Philips, SOJO aims to make tailoring and mending accessible.
“Today, a small but growing team of tailors, riders, developers and creatives work to accelerate change in the fashion industry. With a shared set of values, the two companies have come together as partners in change.
“The partnership with SOJO comes as M&S unveils ‘another life’. Visible on all retail sites, websites, apps and stores starting this month, Plan A – “Another Life.” brings together all retail circulation services in one place.
“From the new partnership with SOJO, the Beauty Takeback Scheme with Handle, to its long-standing clothing donation partnership with Oxfam, formerly known as ‘Shwopping’, all initiatives now sit together as part of Plan A – ‘Another Life’. offer a smoother experience for customers looking for ways to support the transition to a more circular economy.”
M&S customers can also learn how to repair and restore their old clothes themselves.
The seller added: “As well as a range of services, Plan A – ‘Next Life’.” the platform will be home to a selection of 60-second ‘how to’ videos covering everything from pulling knits to adjusting hems – created by M&S’s team of in-house technical experts.”
A new M&S initiative aims to reduce textile waste. Customers were told: “According to WRAP, the climate action NGO, in the UK alone we don’t wear 1.6 billion items of clothing in our wardrobes – that’s an average of 31 items per person.
“The ‘M&S fix SOJO’ hub – launched in August – will support M&S customers to give their M&S clothes a ‘second life’. and reduce textile waste, a key pillar of Plan A’s retail plan to drive a circular economy.
“The partnership builds on the retailer’s established clothing donation scheme with Oxfam, which has collected over 36 million items of clothing and raised an estimated £23 million to fight poverty around the world.”
Richard Price, managing director of clothing and home at M&S, said: “At M&S, exceptional quality products are at the heart of everything we do, and we want to make sure all our clothes are too good to waste.
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“At M&S we want to make sure all our clothes are too good to waste”
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“With the launch of our repair service, we’re making it even easier for customers to give their clothes another life, whether they use our new repair service or our long-standing clothing recycling system.”
SOJO Founder and CEO, Josephine Phillips, commented: “Our core mission at SOJO has always been to make garment repair mainstream and extend the life of as many garments as possible.
“I’m so excited that M&S have decided to launch the fix here at SOJO as it’s an incredibly big step towards this mission. As a brand that has remained a fixture in almost every home and wardrobe in Britain, this partnership with really brings affordable and convenient repairs to the masses.
“Furthermore, as one of Britain’s longest-standing brands, having M&S join our commitment to repair adds great weight to our call for industry-wide change here in the UK.”
It comes as M&S launches an exciting food innovation that is sure to turn heads.
A supermarket is “finally” launching a sandwich with “literally the best filling” and shoppers are calling it “absolutely banging”.
In other news, M&S supermarket has urgently pulled a children’s product from its shelves due to a choking hazard.