INTERVIEW #39 THE CLOTHING CLUB
Based in: Aarhus, Denmark
Founded in: 2018 in Aarhus
Founded by: Saskia Kjellström (founder), Fie Mortensen (current chairperson)
Shop: Physical club in Aarhus, Denmark
Instagram: @clothingclubaarhus
Price range: 50 DKK pr. month for membership
Why we love them: The Clothing Club is an amazing initiative by driven and creative people. We love this! Sharing clothes has never been hotter and we believe this is the way forward. Sharing is caring, you go, The Clothing Club.
The Clothing Club, what an amazing concept! I know that Saskia Kjellström started the project, someone we (A Sustainable Closet) really admire and who’s been featured in an interview here awhile ago! Tell us, why and how did the “shared wardrobe” community start?
Well, as you mentioned the whole idea of The Clothing Club (TCC) was created by Saskia Kjellström. Saskia has always been enchanted by the magic and power of fashion, yet she has always felt conflicted about her passion for clothes due to its polluting nature. The club started as part of her final project at The Kaospilot’s and has since become a great community of clothing loving, sustainability craving people in Aarhus. The fashion industry is doing business in a way that doesn’t fit with the future TCC is dreaming of. Therefore, TCC offers an alternative to the fast fashion world, where the need for newly produced clothing is lowered by the access to a local shared wardrobe.
You guys clearly advocate sustainable fashion, but how would you describe your assortment?
Yes, TCC advocates sustainable fashion. Both the TCC volunteers and our members are great advocates of sustainable fashion, because we believe local clothing rental has a smaller environmental footprint compared to purchasing new clothes, it is for sure a more conscious way to get dressed. Our collection of clothes are already worn/used/preowned clothes. The clothes are either donated by private people or second hand shops. We are connected to different secondhand and vintage shops in Aarhus, and they usually contact us when they have to discard some of their clothes. The same applies for private donors, and our members usually contact us before throwing their clothes out. It is definitely not clothes donation that is our problem, because we actually get too many donations. In general, TCC wants to prolong the “life cycle of clothes' , even when we go through our collection twice a year and outsort broken or too worn pieces, we try to fix the pieces. Many of the volunteers are good at sewing, and we actually have a team of volunteers whose main task is to fix the clothes. We believe that the model of sharing and recycling clothes is a great solution for the current overconsumption of clothes. When you compare TCC with other clothes rental shops/services, our supply chain is actually more sustainable. We don’t buy the garment from new, we don’t use dry cleaning between each rental, we don’t use packaging materials and do not create transportation emissions. TCC is a local alternative for people living in Aarhus. Moreover we hope to inspire other local pioneers to replicate TCC, and in this way support the transformation of the current mindset of clothing consumption.
Take us through the process, how does it work when choosing what clothes/pieces to take in for others to loan?
TCC wants to give people an opportunity to try different kinds of clothes and experience the joy of dressing. We want them to get more inspired to try new crazy outfits or even reinvent their current style. When we get the different donations, we need to sort all the clothes. We have a handful of volunteers who have the responsibility to sort and grade the clothes. We aim to have a broad range of clothes in different sizes, and most importantly we want our collection to be colorful, fun, have a certain level of quality and a touch of rareness. After the sorting process we wash the clothes, and after that, the clothes are ready for rental.
Where do you see The Clothing Club in 10 years?
We have great future plans and ideas for TCC. Actually we finally formalized TCC in November 2021 and now we can call ourselves an official association. We are in a place where we have a dedicated board who already have shown a great amount of enthusiasm and interest for the future of TCC.
The future vision for TCC is sustaining our current community, inspiring other people to start their own local clothing libraries, and help facilitate their processes with our knowledge. We would love to create an open source system for clothing libraries, where they and their members can have an overview of their clothes, memberships and rentals.
Furthermore, we want to improve our TCC community that centers around conscious clothing, fashion, sustainability and having fun. Create more events, create more visibility, and be able to educate people about the importance of our purpose and vision. Lastly, we want to create a space where people hang out, get new friends, learn to recycle and sew, get jobs through each other, go to parties they might not have known about. For all this to happen, we need to have a good administrative structure in TCC, good people who want to facilitate the club, and have a clear and simple “membership model” that can be replicated. We know it's possible, but let’s see where we are 10 years from now.
For someone who feels like it’s such a complicated mission to find clothes that fit your body and style when it comes to second hand - What would you advise them?
We will advise them to give it a try anyways. It’s also a question about the mindset. if you already have these thoughts about second hand, you’ll never find something useful. But if you look at it as a treasure hunt, where only your creativity/imagination is the limit, you'll see a lot of opportunities. But the second hand market is evolving, and there are many websites or apps where you can filter and sort between different sizes. At TCC we take our time to give our members advice and suggestions regarding size and styles. And it is actually very fun, when the person is open minded.
We can see that a key part of the concept is being very inclusive, why is that important to you?
We think any clothes should be for everyone. The fashion World in general has been very size and gender focused, and not very inclusive for a lot of people. We want a World where the power of clothes is for everyone! That is also why our wardrobe is not sorted by gender or size but rather by clothing type (pants, tops, dresses) and color. If you like it and you think you will like the fit - you put it on. No matter what the label says! We want our members to feel free to explore their expression, and what kind of fit they like (tight, loose, tailored etc.), and not have to worry about any other boxes. We welcome all no matter their gender identity, their ethnicity or sexuality.
What is “greenwashing” according to you and what can producers and consumers do to avoid it?
Greenwashing is a useless response to very real and pressing problems, often created by the greenwashers themselves. It is a way of marketing that obscures actual information on sourcing, social-economic responsibility, transportation and production by using popular sustainability buzzwords.
It is very complicated for consumers to know when they are actually holding a sustainably sourced, produced and transported product.
What producers can do, is to take responsibility and actually make changes to these processes to make sure they ARE more sustainable, and invest in research on new techniques and ways of making processes even more sustainable. This way there will be no reason to greenwash. It might be useful to the consumer for there to be trustworthy certifications as well within the industry. Until then we can only, as consumers, use our common sense and continue to educate ourselves about the processes. And most of all ask ourselves - what will we be willing to sacrifice to ensure better processes? Buying new much less often? Pay higher prices? Do less online shopping? Until then - reduce, reuse and recycle.
What’s the best thing about running this fun “clothing library”?
The people! Members, volunteers, people who pass by and ask questions! It is so great to be in a community of people who want to change the way the world works and how we think about clothes, fashion and consumption - even just on a local level. It is also fun to help members explore their style, and have conversations about sizes, body image, gender identity, race and culture while we do it. There is a lot to learn from every member and volunteer!
Credit: Keren Beaudoin, Anaelle Favier, Robyn Shaw