John Lewis & Partners introduces new labelling to encourage customers to hand down children's clothing

Saturday 29 February 2020

To encourage a stronger culture of handing down clothing that children have outgrown, and reduce the amount which goes to landfill  John Lewis & Partners is introducing a new message ‘Wear it, Love it, Hand it down’ on the labels attached to its own brand babywear and childrenswear clothing. These collections comprise around 700 different garments.   

The retailer is also introducing new, permanent organic cotton labelling on the inside of its range of own brand children’s coats so the new owner can cross out the name of the last owner in pen and write their name. Coats have been chosen to test this labelling because they have a long life and are often  the garment parents spend the most on. The new labels will also mean parents won’t have to stitch in name tags. 

It’s estimated that childrenswear represents a disproportionate amount of the thousands of tonnes of clothing in landfill due to the fact that children need more new clothing than adults because they outgrow them.  Recycling experts WRAP estimate that extending the average life of clothes (2.2 years) by just three months of active use per item would lead to a 5-10% reduction in each of the carbon, water and waste footprints, and cut resource costs by £2bn1.

Caroline Bettis, Partner and Head Childrenswear Buyer at John Lewis said; “We’re really proud of the quality of our clothes and want them to have a really long life and be handed down again and again. 

“Our in-house design team create timeless designs so they don’t go out of fashion. We make them up in carefully selected good quality fabrics, and put our clothing through rigorous testing to ensure the colours stay bright, and they endure well under wear and tear. 

“I hope these new labels will help to grow the culture of handing down clothes which can be worn again by other children.”

Over 75%2 of  John Lewis & Partner’s own brand babywear and childrenswear is made from sustainable cotton.

The ‘Wear it, love it, hand it down’ message will be printed on labels made from FSC paper.  The labels which give the size of the garment are made from organic cotton and the product care labels are made from 100% recycled polyester.


1 Design For Extending Clothing Life published May 2016

2 2019 figures

NOTES TO EDITORS

About John Lewis & Partners

John Lewis & Partners operates 50 John Lewis shops across the UK (36 department stores, 12 John Lewis at home and shops at St Pancras International and Heathrow Terminal 2) as well as johnlewis.com. The retailer stocks around 350,000 separate lines in its department stores and on  johnlewis.com across fashion, home and technology. This year John Lewis & Partners won, 'Best Multichannel Retailer 2018', 'Best Clothing Retailer 2018', and 'Best Furniture Retailer 2018' at the GlobalData Customer Satisfaction Awards 2018.  John Lewis Finance offers a range of comprehensive financial services products - including Insurance, Foreign Currency, International Payments and the Partnership Card - delivering the values of expertise, trust and customer service expected from the John Lewis brand. johnlewisfinance.com

*GlobalData Retail Customer Satisfaction Awards 2018

ENQUIRIES

John Lewis & Partners


Mandy Pursey 
Senior Communications Manager, Corporate Responsibility
Email: mandy.pursey@johnlewis.co.uk
Tel: 0207 7983896