Reflect Studio Next Stores
The problem: The world has a waste problem, and while the fashion industry isn’t responsible for all of it, textile waste makes up a significant portion of that.
Every year, 92 million tons of textile waste are sent to landfills or burned at the end of their life, while less than 1% of old clothing goes on to be used to make new clothes.The equivalent of a garbage truck full of clothes ends up in a landfill site every second and if things don’t change, by 2050 a quarter of the world's carbon budget will be consumed by the fashion industry. Our environment is drowning in deadstock fabrics and second-quality garments. Tons of resources like water and manpower are being wasted making garments that will never be truly used. We believe that small changes in our outlook can make lasting changes.
The approach: As a studio, store, and brand, we believe that an upgraded approach to design and production can become the driving force in implementing circularity and sustainability in fashion.
Our goal is to widen the “sustainability” spectrum by integrating different approaches like upcycling, recycling, and repair culture as alternative solutions.
The journey: To do that, we have to look at sustainability as a whole and set out on a journey for what’s next.
That means saving what we can, creating new life cycles when possible, experimenting with new materials, producing mindfully, and asking questions like…
↳ We are working to save our own production leftovers from becoming waste. How can we save other brands' waste too?
↳ Is a new organic cotton tee as eco-friendly as a garment made from leftover fabric that was heading to a landfill?
↳ How can we embrace the minor defects of second-quality products?
#NextSustainability entails looking at the roots of matters to make actual, long-lasting change and calls for uniqueness in creation. It embraces imperfection and sees “sustainability” as a journey that everyone can be a part of.
The solution: Reflect Studio Next stores are a physical representation of our #NextSustainability ethos.
Influenced by the infinite potential of the DIY movement, our new stores offer endless solutions to our most common waste problems.
In the fashion industry, the term “second quality” refers to retail products that fail to meet quality control standards during manufacturing. Even though they might have defects unnoticeable to the naked eye, these products are set aside and forgotten about.
Over-ordered rolls of uncut fabric that weren’t used or didn’t sell are referred to as deadstock, and they too share a similar fate of ending up in landfills.
Instead of pursuing a sterile and artificial perfection, the Reflect Studio Next stores offer new lifecycles for products and fabrics that would otherwise be discarded. Here, scraps and deadstock fabrics are turned into brand-new products and second-quality products get a second chance.
Our Upgrade Space, located inside our stores, functions as a playground where you can repair and personalize products to make them one of a kind, just like you.
