Recycled Fashion As recycled clothing is becoming more popular, franchise Recycle Boutique is at the forefront of vintage and designer clothing in New Zealand. Laura Harrington interviewed Jo James and took photos of Lauren Bramley at the Palmerston North store to find out more.
Where is it? There are Recycle Boutique stores in Auckland, Hamilton, Napier, Palmerston North, Wellington and Christchurch. Describe Recycle Boutique in a sentence? Eclectic, messy, just like your own wardrobe that you walk into. What demographic? We don’t cater to any specific market, we’ve got a really broad market from 15 year olds through to 60 year olds. Mainly female, but also menswear. People who likes clothes. How did the idea for the company originate? It’s a franchise company, so the shop in Auckland started almost 20 years ago. It all started from this shop in Auckland wanting to sell other people’s clothes. What drew you to working here? Well I wanted to have my own shop, and I really like clothes and I really like second hand clothes.
How often does new stock enter the store? We put new stuff out every week, so everyday we’re sorting bags, pricing them up and putting them out. They go out into the shop on Wednesdays and Saturdays mainly. We’re constantly getting stuff dropped in all day, everyday. What range of items? Anything fashion or clothing based. What makes recycle Boutique unique? We aren’t just the high end or vintage, we’re the broad spectrum of fast fashion stores and we have a bigger range of customers so what we have in the shop is more of a mix. Also our computer system is what sets us apart from other consignment stores, we have 5000 suppliers in our system, the Wellington store for example has 15.000 upwards and Auckland has 30,000 just for that store, so because we have such a really good computer system that allows us to be able to take on heaps of people and keep track of everthing really well. (These suppliers are essentially everyday people who bring in clothes, anyone can do it.)
“We want to encourage second hand shopping more so but changing people’s perception that it’s not just going to an op shop and buying moth ball covered stuff.”
What is the continuing intention of Recycle Boutique? To be people’s first port of call, always, when they want to go shopping. Encourage second hand shopping more so, but changing people’s perception that it’s not just going to an op shop and buying moth ball covered stuff. Also encouraging more people to sell their stuff as well. For the company moving forward I guess we’ll look at going online. How do you market the store? It’s both online marketing and a walk in store. Obviously shops attract people in themselves, who may not have ever heard of the brand but because we have stores all around New Zealand that brand awareness is what we keep trying to make really strong. Online is the only way, through social media such as Facebook and Intsagram. How can Recycle Boutique be contated? Online at www.recycleboutique.com and Facebook and Instagram pages for each store.