Marks & Spencer and Oxfam have joined forces with London Fashion Weekend to announce The Fashion Amnesty, to encourage visitors to the Weekend to bring along all their unwanted clothes to be resold or recycled to help raise money for Oxfam. The Fashion Amnesty will take place during London Fashion Weekend on the lawns of the Natural History Museum from 20th – 24th February 2008.
The Fashion Amnesty is part of the new ‘M&S and Oxfam Clothes Exchange’, which aims to encourage people to recycle their clothes to raise money for Oxfam’s work to tackle poverty and injustice and reduce the one million tonnes of clothing sent by the public to landfill in the UK each year.
Visitors to London Fashion Weekend are being encouraged to donate any clothing they wish to the Amnesty. However anyone donating Marks & Spencer labelled clothing will receive a £5 voucher from the ‘M&S and Oxfam Clothes Exchange’ to use with their next purchase of £35 or more on clothing, homeware or beauty products at M&S.
Beckie Crane, Marketing Manager, London Fashion Weekend said, “We are delighted to be working with Marks & Spencer and Oxfam on The Fashion Amnesty. We are encouraging all our visitors to bring at least one item of unwanted clothing with them to the event so that they can help to continue all the valuable work that Oxfam does and make space in their wardrobes for all the shopping they’ll do at LFWend”
The Fashion Amnesty will take place for the duration of the 5-day London Fashion Weekend event. Visitors are being encouraged to donate unwanted items of clothing or shoes, handbags, belts, hats, scarves or gloves. Manned Fashion Amnesty recycling stations will be situated at the front of the event, when people first enter.
London Fashion Weekend, sponsored by Grazia, is London’s most exclusive shopping event and offers visitors the chance to buy from luxury designers such as Ben de Lisi, DAKS, Juicy Couture and Paul & Joe, all at a fraction of their normal retail value. The event also features a cutting-edge catwalk show, which this season is sponsored by Channel 4 and showcases the best new trends for the season. In addition to this, visitors can enjoy a vast array of fabulous London Fashion Weekend experiences such as a blow dry at the Toni & Guy Blow Out Bar, an Elizabeth Arden make-over, a St Tropez tan, a manicure at the Revlon & Superdrug Nail Bar or simply relax in one of the many stylish bars at the event.
Mike Barry, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, Marks & Spencer said: “We are delighted to partner with London Fashion Weekend to encourage people to donate their clothes to be resold or recycled by Oxfam as part of the M&S and Oxfam Clothes Exchange. By doing something as simple as this, people will help to reduce the one million tonnes of clothing sent to landfill each year and Oxfam will be able to increase the important work it does to tackle poverty.”
David McCullough, Trading Director from Oxfam said: “Oxfam is the original fashion recycling service. Clothes that are donated to us get a new lease of life, and because of our partnership in the M&S and Oxfam Clothes Exchange people who donate M&S items to us can also get vouchers to save money at M&S. We are hugely excited to be working with London Fashion Weekend, and hopefully we’ll get lots of great clothes to help us raise money to tackle poverty and injustice around the world.”
Tickets for London Fashion Weekend can be purchased from www.londonfashionweekend.co.uk or by calling the ticket hotline on 0871 230 1558. Tickets start at £10.
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PRESS ENQUIRIES
For London Fashion Weekend enquiries please contact Caroline Reader: carolinereader@hotmail.co.uk
For Marks & Spencer enquiries please contact Olivia Ross 0208 718 1618
For Oxfam enquiries please contact Rob McNeil 01865 472 334
EDITORS NOTES
M&S and Oxfam Clothes Exchange
The M&S and Oxfam Clothes Exchange launched in January 2008. It aims to raise more money for Oxfam to help people escape poverty around the world. This includes dealing with issues in more than 70 countries, ranging from campaigning against unfair trade rules that keep developing countries in poverty, to providing tools, seeds and skills to poor farmers. It also means helping vulnerable communities when disasters happen; supporting women’s rights in developing countries and working to tackle climate change and HIV and AIDS.
Vouchers not issued for M&S intimate apparel (such as lingerie, underwear and swimwear), hosiery and socks that are donated to Oxfam.
One voucher provided in return for donations containing at least one piece of M&S labelled clothing, or a handbag, pair of shoes, belt, hat, pair of gloves or scarf.
In the Republic of Ireland, M&S vouchers will be for €7 off €50 on M&S general merchandise.
One M&S voucher can be used for each transaction in M&S for general merchandise products - clothing, home or beauty (not food).
One million tonnes of clothing sent to landfill each year, source DEFRA 2006.
For more information on the M&S and Oxfam Clothes exchange please visit www.marksandspencer.com/plana or www.oxfam.org.uk
Oxfam and textiles
Oxfam is the only major charity to operate its own textile sorting facility, Wastesaver, which maximises revenue from textiles that cannot be re-sold in its shops and minimises the amount of textiles sent to landfill. The facility sorts clothing and resells it through a number of different routes, including:
- redistribution to Oxfam shops
- selling on the Oxfam online shop and at festivals
- to designers who restyle garments and reuse fabrics in their collections
- to textile wholesalers in the UK and overseas
- the low grade items not sold as clothing are sold in bulk to recycling traders where it is used, for example, as mattress filler, carpet underlay, upholstery and car sound insulation.
M&S and Oxfam will also explore the possibility of taking materials that can’t be sold or recycled through traditional methods, such as embellished denim, and recycling it into cardboard boxes, for example, or back into denim clothing.
London Fashion Weekend
London Fashion Weekend is organised by Single Market Events, the UK’s most innovative and award winning exhibition organisers, specialising in creative events such as London Fashion Week, Fashion Weekend Manchester, The British International Motor Show, The Wine Show, RSVP and RSVP North. www.single-market.co.uk
London Fashion Weekend will take place from Wednesday 20th February (Exclusive Grazia Preview evening) until Sunday 24th February at The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7
Gift Tickets cost £20 for the Grazia preview evening on Wednesday 20th February or at £15 for any of the other four days, and includes a fabulous London Fashion Weekend canvas bag, which can be picked up at the event on presentation of this special ticket.
Standard entry tickets for Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday cost £10 in advance and £12 on the door. Standard tickets for the Grazia Preview evening cost £15.50 in advance.
For more information please visit www.londonfashionweekend.co.uk
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