Based in Oswestry, Shropshire, With Love From (WLF) is a community project founded, funded and run by local volunteers. We are in the process of registering as a CIC.
On a mission to reduce the environmental and ethical impact of fashion through the promotion of better choices. We are encouraging people to slow down in their shopping habits, repair, re-wear, share and care for the clothing that already exists.
We have created a shared wardrobe of occasion wear and linked this with a sewing service where we can repair, alter and customise clothing. We run workshops empowering people to repair, alter and customise their own clothing. We also work with local schools, colleges, businesses and community groups to host events, talks and educational workshops, raising awareness about the challenges caused by the current fashion system and driving our community towards a better fashion future for people and planet.
There is enough clothing on the planet to dress the next six generations…
...We started by creating a shared wardrobe in the town, encouraging people to donate items in exchange for points which can be spent within the shared wardrobe. We called the project WLF because every item donated is labelled with the donators name.This promotes a slower, more circular fashion system and drives towards a more conscious community of consumers.
On average, British women hoard £285 worth of unused clothing within their wardrobes…
...This equates to over £34 million worth of useless purchases in Shropshire alone. Our shared wardrobe already holds more than 600 items and we have reiceved donations from more than 80 people in the town. We are very excited about partnering with Oswestry Library as we believe it could help us scale the initiative further and increase accessibility to sustainable fashion options.
For this project we plan to adapt the WLF shared wardrobe so that it aligns with the library service. As part of this project, all Oswestry Library card holders, registered with the library will be able to:
- Donate party clothing, footwear and accessories to the library
- Browse a ‘pilot collection’ featuring festive outfits from the existing WLF shared wardrobe
- Borrow items from the wardrobe library for a period of six weeks. Items can be renewed, unless requested by another library card holder (similar to books).
- Purchase items from the shared wardrobe
- Damaged items will be collected by WLF for local students/upcyclers/designers
