ASOS announces partnership with Thrift+

• New circular design collection includes over 40 products which meet ASOS’ circular design criteria and are all made from recycled, renewable, or innovative2 materials

• Trial partnership with clothing resale service, Thrift+, to extend the life of clothes, which will allow customers to sell pre-loved clothes to earn credit which they can spend on Thrift+, donate to charity, or redeem as ASOS vouchers4

• A further step towards ASOS’ 2030 Fashion with Integrity strategy and its key pillars, including the goal to Be More Circular

ASOS, an online destination for fashion-loving 20-somethings, today launches its second circular design collection featuring over 40 pieces across clothing and accessories for the Spring/Summer season, alongside a trial partnership with resale service Thrift+.

Each of the styles in the circular design collection meets ASOS’ circular design criteria, which is based on the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s vision for a circular fashion economy.1 As part of this, all products in the collection are made from recycled, renewable, or innovative materials. 2

Additionally, all denim meets ASOS’ commitment to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Jeans Redesign Project – a set of guidelines that provide an ambitious industry standard for circular denim3. Some of the products were designed using digital 3D technology which reduces the need to manufacture samples in the design process.

The collection builds on ASOS’ previous circular design collection in September 2020. While the 2020 collection involved a small number of teams that had progressed through ASOS’ circular design education programme, every Commercial team across ASOS was involved in the creation of the products in the collection launching today, reflecting the wider rollout of circular design education across ASOS’ teams.

It follows the publication in November 2021 of the ASOS Circular Design Handbook, a 112-page interactive resource created together with the Centre for Sustainable Fashion at London College of Fashion to help ASOS teams and external designers, students and fashion brands design and create fashion products that support the circular economy.

In the collection, ASOS’ customers can expect pieces for Summer, including cut-out detail dresses, oversized, colour-blocked shirts, and boyfriend jeans, accessorised with retro sunglasses. The graphics and prints are brave and optimistic, mixing retro floral with wavy checkerboard prints, all in this season’s key colours – burnt orange, lilac, and apple green teamed with undyed neutrals and indigo denims.

Vanessa Spence, Commercial Design and Visual Director at ASOS, said: “To have a successful commercial future, the fashion industry needs to be both sustainable and circular.

Over the past few years, we’ve been working with our partners and experts to discover how we can be more circular - one of our new 2030 Fashion with Integrity goals. The launch of our second circular design collection, which uses innovative new materials and takes our circular design criteria one step further, is a great moment for us as we continue to develop our expertise in this area.

“Of course, design is just one piece of the circular puzzle – and to be truly circular, products must pass through circular systems as well as meet our circular design criteria. While resale is just one such system, we’re proud to be launching a new trial in collaboration with Thrift+ today, to extend the life of products by enabling them to easily and conveniently be resold.”

Thrift+ trial

As part of the Thrift+ trial, customers can ensure clothes they no longer wear can get a second lease of life through resale while receiving credit that they can either donate to charity, use to purchase second-hand fashion on Thrift+ or redeem as ASOS vouchers. It’s simple to use and customers can:

• Request a free ASOS x Thrift+ bag via a link on ASOS’ website

• Send unwanted clothes back to Thrift+ to sell on its platform

• Once sold, receive credits which can either be spent on other preloved clothing, donated to a chosen charity, including the ASOS Foundation, or redeemed as ASOS vouchers4

30,000 bags will be available for customers as part of the first phase of the trial.

Joe Metcalfe, Thrift+ Founder, said: “We are delighted to support ASOS’ progress towards circularity with the launch of this trial. Making it easy for people to responsibly get unwanted clothing back into circulation is key to making fashion more circular; and it’s hugely exciting that ASOS customers will now have the Thrift+ service at their fingertips. We’re looking forward to measuring the impact of the trial, such as the number of items re-sold and the amount raised for charity; as well as feeding data on the success of item resale back into future circular product design.”