Worn Again has recently announced a collaboration with McDonald's on a long-term strategy towards sustainable uniforms for its staff. We're partnering with ultra hip duo of cool Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway to design the new uniforms for McDonald's 85,000 employees in the UK.
We had an ambition to help McDonald's think seriously about the end of life in its old and new uniforms. Hemingway Design is driven foremost by great design, but they also share our ethos. The partnership just made sense. Hemingway Design will be designing the new look and feel, and Worn Again will be responsible for the strategy around how the uniforms are made and what they are made of.
We will also be working closely with our partner, the uniform supplier Dimensions/Alexandra, with the aim of making the uniforms... (read more)
After a good long year of development with Eurostar Train Managers, interpreting their decommissioned uniforms, designing with Benjamin Shine, launching in Wired Magazine, on show at the Design Museum and working with our UK manufacturer Barrow and Gale, we are proud to announce:
The Worn Again Eurostar Train Manager's bag is on trains now... They are being distributed to Eurostar's 225 Train Manager's over the next month. So keep an eye out and be sure to let those train manager's know what a mighty fine creation they are sporting through the tunnels and towns of England and Europe.
Here's a bit more press related info from Eurostar...
In the past two years, Worn Again has been hard at work developing a new business model which has shifted our focus from consumer products to high volume/ low cost/ high impact corporate buy back products. Why? By working with large companies to change just one aspect of it's daily operations - i.e. reusing tonnes of textile waste rather than sending it to landfill - we can have a much greater impact and be part of creating a real shift to a more sustainable world. Quicker. Harder. And faster.
What drives us is a passion for innovating, finding answers and challenging companies to imagine and prepare for the future. Let's face it, if we carry on with 'business as usual', there won't be much of a world left worth doing business in anyway. It's make or break time, so let's get cracking.
In the short term, it's about upcycling... (read more)
It’s Springtime. And we're springin' at Worn Again HQ and hope you are too.
New Royal Mail product, new team members, and new focus...
Firstly, we’re excited to be launching the Royal Mail Storm Sack, designed by our pal, Benjamin Shine. Get yours now by going to the shop section on our website, or click here.
As usual, it’s been RE:Made in the UK, by John and his team at Tracy Adams in Leamington Spa. Here he is, making the magic happen.
Secondly, new change partners! We've just starting working with two well known global brands which we can't wait to... (read more)
Its not often, but sometimes, you hear an expression or read
an article that captures your ideas so well and expresses them so clearly and succinctly
that its worth repeat verbatim.
Here at Worn Again we feel that way about this article from
Timberland's CEO Jeff Swartz. Well said Jeff !
They do get a lot of things right, those 10:10 people... Look! Sign up and show your support today.
Worn Again is proud to support those crazy campaigners willing to take chances.
Oh - and yes, we're also very happy to announce our latest creation, the Worn Again/ Royal Mail 'Storm Sack', made from decommissioned Royal Mail storm jackets, worn by postal workers up and down the UK, delivering the mail come rain or shine. Available online soon!
For many clients, it's about high volume, low cost products with good design and simple manufacturing. For others, it's bespoke design and intricate detail.
The last few days at WA HQ have not been business as usual because we’ve been feverishly preparing a highly specialised product for a specific corporate customer’s requirements – the product involves 39 pattern pieces in its construction! And that’s before you consider the complexity of preparing the ‘uniform’ materials to a uniform standard for manufacturing.
We are a products company, as well as consultancy, so it’s not only about our strategic advice for achieving zero-waste systems, but also about the nitty gritty of working with manufacturers to make the products.
Making upcycled products requires not only ingenuity and determination but also lots of hard work, from lots of people. ... (read more)
Welcome, William !! He arrived safe and well this week. We are all delighted at HQ. Much champagne and back slapping to follow when the proud Dad is back.
Phew! August has been anything but a holiday here at Worn Again HQ. We have all had our heads down preparing for a major pitch over the last couple of weeks, and poor Hannah has been beavering away on preparing Eurostar uniforms for the production of the Train Manager bags, as well as looking after keeping order in the office chaos. Talking of matters administrative, I’ve had the pleasure of completing our year end accounts, overhauling our financial reporting systems. Oh joy!
But a lot more exciting than that has been working as a team to put together a knock-out pitch for a major high street brand and even more thrilling is that there is now a pipeline of pitches with major brands coming up in the next few months – so expect us to break cover and report more definitive news soon. Watch this space.
Summer daze and the WA team are aiming for a better work/ life balance.
Simon is away on holiday ('again?'... we tease) over in NYC with Bea and kids.
Jamie prepares for a baby brother for Isabelle. Hannah spends weekends
fastidiously crafting more bridal and bride's maids dresses for mates. And I have been for a mind and soul tickling weekend away at the Port
Elliot Festival in Cornwall, simply one of
the best kept festival secrets. (Shhh...)
So there’s a sneak peak into what we get up to when we’re not plotting
and planning for a zero waste world... We'd love to hear what floats the boats of any worn again wearers out there…
Write a comment and let us know what else we might want to be doing to keep the upcycling juices flowing in our out of hours time.
It has been crazy HOT these past few days - and we've been loving it! And speaking of hot things we love, check out this video of Worn Again's front woman Cyndi being interviewed by Insead Business School. It's an oldie but a goodie as she explains quite simply what we do, how we do it and most importantly why we do it.
Also in the press this week was the lovely and talented Benjamin Shine (we collaborated with him on the Eurostar Train Managers Bag) who was in high spirits as the Taxi Elephant he designed for the Elephant Parade raised a whopping £40K at auction for charity last week. In the interview with Open Magazine, Ben talks about his inspirations, work methods and gives us... (read more)
The Queen had to celebrate without us in beautiful Rome at
her ‘Green is the New Black: Eco Fashion goes Trendy’ exhibition. Not sure
where the shot of her modelling our Worn Again cheeky sling bag went…
We also met with our upcycling partners in crime Orsola and
Fillipo at From Somewhere, Kerry from Junky Stylingand Nin from Goodone to
plot out next steps for RE:Facto, a large scale upcycling production unit we’re
looking to create in the Thames Gateway.Big project… more on that soon.
And our very own Chief Upcycler made an appearance in the Telegraph Magazine.
It's a bittersweet week
for us as we say goodbye to the lovely Blake Brown who has been interning with
us for the last 2 and half months. In that time she has reorganised our
“dungeon” of materials, overseen the details of production for our Train Managers
Bag for Eurostar, researched designers, written up tech packs and more all
while smiling!
It has been an absolute pleasure having Blake with us. We wish her the very best of luck with the rest of her course and hope that she'll stay in touch!
(In an attempt to cut words and keep it simple we’ve decided to condense our weekly blogs in under 100 words. Fans, friends and freaks alike can follow our story as it unfolds on the journey. Installment number 1…)
Congrats to Richard Wassell who won a pair of Eurostar tickets to Paris as part of our mid April competition. Enjoy the trip and grab us some good cheese while you’re over there.
Inside WA, Simon, our head of finance, continued to struggle with the basics of Sage – a world away from his life in investment banking.
We also hosted a class of Dutch students who were enthralled by our upcycling ways and came up with some ingenious ideas themselves, including an oven glove made from Eurostar staff cardigans…
Cyndi, Jamie and Simon celebrate signing of a deal… more soon.
It might not save us, but it can influence our impact on the world…
Last night we celebrated the launch of the Sustainable Futures exhibition at the Design Museum with our Eurostar pals and champions, Pascale and Sandra.
The exhibition is running until September and explores a range of products, concepts and projects that address issues of sustainability in their design, including Worn Again’s very own Eurostar Train Managers bag, designed by Benjamin Shine, made from decommissioned staff uniforms and seat cushions.
The bags are soon to go into production at our manufacturing partner’s factory in Woolwich and should be live and in action on board Eurostar trains speeding through the hearts of London, Brussels and Paris in a few short months.
Other forward thinking concepts and designs include our very own Christopher Raeburn (designer of Worn Again’s (read more)
Following the news of our feature in Aprils’ issue of WIRED magazine mentioned in the previous blog post, we were filled with much excitement and joy and thought to ourselves, how could we pass this feeling onto our Worn Again friends? After deep thought and reflection, we felt what better way to spread smiles than with a 30% discount off all current Worn Again Eurostar products and a chance to win a trip to gay Paris courtesy of Eurostar!
Enter the LETSGOTOPARIS discount code at checkout and you’ll get 30% off all in stock Eurostar products in our online shop until midnight of the 15th April 2010. Spread the word, tell your friends, family, work colleagues and grab a bargain while you still can. You’ll also be automatically entered into our competition for a fabulous trip for 2 to Paris via Eurostar. (Winner announced w/c... (read more)
We think it’s a big deal and WIRED agree because it’s the worlds first upcycled Train Managers bag. The bag has been made from Eurostars decommissioned staff uniforms and seats with award winning Designer Benjamin Shine, for train managers traveling between London, Paris and Brussels.
The project is part of Worn Again’s long term commitment to reinvigorate UK remanufacturing, RE:Made in UK, and divert unnecessary waste from landfill. We’ll keep you posted on our progress and let you know when you can see the bag in action on the Eurostar trains.
Last week we spent a lovely day at the DEFRA Sustainable Clothing Roadmap conference, interspersed with champagne lunch at London Fashion Week, then party central in the evening. It was a brilliant mix of celebration, fun and very serious sustainability work. The growing presence of Estethica and the sustainability brands at LFW is awesome to see and our factory collaborators Filippo and Orsela from From Somewhere, as usual did a brilliant job. Highlights of the day included a presentation from a Dutch consortium showing off a brilliant new machine to both separate waste textile and create new thread, even in short fiber denim. This prompted the man from Tesco to say, ’we’ll buy that from you tomorrow’! Unfortunately the machine isn’t quite ready yet but will be later this year so look out for organic/reuse mixed cotton jeans in your local superstore soon.
Making upcycled products requires not only ingenuity and determination but also lots of hard work, from lots of people. ... 
