Fashion platform The Iconic has expanded its circular fashion offering with the launch of Rescued.
The new shoppable category will feature both repaired and upcycled pieces, including items identified at The Iconic’s warehouse with minor imperfections that require mending.
Up until now, all faulty items have been donated to Thread Together, returned to brands, sold to resellers or recycled where necessary and possible.
With the new Rescued category, eligible pieces will be intercepted by the warehouse team and sent to Australian startup Revibe to be cleaned and repaired, ready for sale on The Iconic at a lower price point.
Of the 47 items currently listed under the Rescued category, all are well below half the original price point. A repaired Rebecca Vallance Carmine Mini Dress is being sold via Rescued for $174.65. The dress, which is now sold out on Rebecca Vallance, originally RRP’d for $499.
Meanwhile, a repaired Camilla and Marc’s Evans Trench Coat is being sold for $297.50, a third of its original $900 price tag. The Iconic is still currently selling the original $900 trench.
According to The Iconic, the initiative has launched in a small pilot phase, with the potential to scale it over time.
“Driving meaningful change through practical, customer-focused solutions is an important element of supporting the transition towards a circular fashion system in Australia,” The Iconic’s chief commercial and sustainability officer, Gayle Burchell, said.
“We’ll be learning with our customers and brands, testing solutions that resonate, and importantly helping to solve industry challenges. We intend to evolve this offering over time to reflect these learnings.”
Under Rescued, The Iconic also welcomes its first upcycled brand, ‘Re/lax Remade’, an Australian label that reworks rare vintage towels into unique hats, accessories and jackets.
The Rescued category will sit within ‘RE-ICONIC’, a new hub for circular solutions, and joins existing programs such as the Pre-Loved shoppable category and donate and recycle programs that aim to address Australia’s growing textile waste challenge. This includes a partnership with RCYCL.
“From talking to our customers, we know the re-commerce market can be overwhelming, and many struggle to find desirable items and dependable services,” Burchell said. “By housing these circular fashion initiatives in one central hub with RE-ICONIC, we’re making it easier for customers to extend the life of their clothing, doing so with purpose, integrity and in collaboration with brands our customers can trust.”
The latest move by The Iconic comes two years after the fashion and lifestyle platform signed as a foundation member of Seamless, Australia’s first-ever national clothing product stewardship scheme. There were five other major fashion brands signing on as founding members, including Big W, David Jones, Lorna Jane, Rip Curl and R.M.Williams.
More than 60 clothing companies have since signed onto the program, where they each will pay a four cent per garment sold levy, with funds pushed into creating circular fashion solutions.
Seamless CEO Ainsley Simpson praised The Iconic’s Rescued initiative.
“The Iconic is leading with innovation, transforming items once considered less than perfect into products with renewed value and purpose,” Simpson said.
“These ‘Rescued’ categories are an exemplar of collaboration between Seamless members and supporters with practical repair and repurposing solutions that create value for customers and achieve positive environmental impact.”