Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The UK’s first shared wardrobe for kids… Charlotte Morley founded thelittleloop to offer a solution to clothing waste with convenience, choice, quality and value. Charlotte grew up being an advocate for sustainability, and found becoming a parent was a watershed moment. The fear of an uncertain future drove Charlotte to make big changes in the way she lived.
But, when it came to dressing her children she couldn’t find a satisfactory solution to the waste that rapidly-growing mini-humans create. Hand-me-downs were haphazard and offered no choice. Buying new then trying peer-to-peer resale was incredibly time consuming and didn’t recover much of the original cost. Charlotte was intrigued by how to incentivise children’s clothing brands to create garments that would last.
Shocked by the problems of under-used clothing and frustrated by the lack of convenient solutions, she decided to solve the problem by working with children’s clothing brands to create a rental service, thelittleloop.
Charlotte drew on her background in retail and technology, and set out to build a solution offering maximum convenience, choice, quality and value, at the same ensuring each garment lives its full potential life.
Charlotte founded her business while working as Head of Digital Product at Notonthehighstreet – and now runs thelittleloop full time. She describes it as both the biggest risk she’s ever taken, and the best thing she could imagine doing for her children’s future.
Thelittleloop works hand in hand with brands, who take a share of the rental revenue, sharing responsibility for the lifespan of the garments, and receiving data to help improve their production standards. Charlotte’s business is already winning awards, including from Marie Claire and Junior magazine, and was featured in the Guardian last month.
Podcast host Catherine Weetman helps businesses use circular, regenerative and fair solutions to do better, with less.
Stay in touch for free insights and updates…
Read on for more on our guest and links to the people, organisations and other resources we mention.
Links we mention in the episode:
- Thelittleloop website https://thelittleloop.com/
- Instagram https://instagram.com/thelittleloopclothing/
- Facebook https://facebook.com/thelittleloop
- LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/thelittleloop/
- Winner of Marie Claire award https://www.linkedin.com/posts/charlotte-morley-a0349755_design-sustainablefashion-marieclaire-activity-6822979714982924288-Jv6K and Junior Design team https://www.linkedin.com/posts/charlotte-morley-a0349755_design-sustainablefashion-innovation-activity-6846553578870448128-27LE
- Featured in the Guardian September 2021 https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2021/sep/21/ethical-kids-clothing-company-frugi-to-launch-rental-collaboration
- How to use ikigai principles to align your business purpose for people, planet & profit. https://www.rethinkglobal.info/ikigai-business-purpose/
- We Are in the Loop – directory of circular economy businesses you can shop from to help create a better future. https://www.weareintheloop.com/
- Gavin Fernie Jones – One Tree at a Time https://onetreeatatime.fr/
About Charlotte Morley
Charlotte Morley founded thelittleloop while working as Head of Digital Product at Notonthehighstreet – leaving her role to build it full time. She describes it as both the biggest risk she’s ever taken, and the best thing she could imagine doing for her children’s future.
Although a lifelong sustainability advocate and geographer, Charlotte found parenthood to be a watershed moment for personal environmental action. The fear of an uncertain future for her children drove her to make significant changes in the way she lived – reducing her consumption and switching to less wasteful habits.
However, when it came to dressing her children she couldn’t find a satisfactory solution to the waste that rapidly growing mini-humans create. Hand-me-downs were haphazard and offered no choice, and the existing system of purchasing then reselling peer-to-peer was incredibly time consuming and rarely financially rewarding. Plus, she was particularly struck by the problem of how to incentivise children’s clothing brands to create garments which would last.
And so, drawing on her background in retail and technology, she set out to build something which would turn the outdated system of buying and re-selling on its head – offering maximum convenience, choice, quality and value, while simultaneously guaranteeing each garment lives its full potential life.
And she did so working hand in hand with brands, who take a share of the rental revenue, sharing responsibility for the lifespan of the garments, and receiving data to use in improving their production standards.
If you’re new to the circular economy, you might like the ‘getting started’ playlist. There’s also an interactive podcast index, making it easy to find episodes on each of the key circular economy strategies or for a specific market sector. And to dig deeper, please check out Catherine’s award-winning A Circular Economy Handbook, published by Kogan Page.
Please follow the Circular Economy Podcast and let us know what you think on LinkedIn, and if you love this episode, please leave us a review wherever you listen, or send an email…