Madewell Recycles Jeans
Madewell is recycling roughly 20,000 jeans into new denim as part of the sustainability stories circulating around fashion shows and retail this season (x.com). The initiative was highlighted alongside other Paris Week coverage that mixed heritage styling and circular‑fashion moves (x.com).
Madewell has turned about 20,000 used jeans into a new denim capsule made with recycled fibers, expanding a trade-in program it has run for more than a decade. (wwd.com) The collection launched on Wednesday, April 8, on Madewell’s website through a partnership with recycler Re&Up and denim manufacturer Isko. It includes three online-exclusive styles priced at $158 each. (reandup.com) Those three styles use fabrics with high recycled-cotton content: 71 percent in the Longline Straight Jean, 75 percent in the Darted Barrel-Leg Jean, and 71 percent in the Wide-Leg Jean. The remaining fabric mix includes viscose, recycled polyester, and elastane, depending on the style. (wwd.com) The jeans came from Madewell’s Denim Trade Up stream, which the company says has collected more than 2.3 million preloved pieces so far. Customers can still bring in jeans from any brand at stores and get $20 off a new pair for each trade-in. (madewell.com) Most apparel take-back programs sort worn clothes for resale, insulation, or other lower-value uses. This project instead fed old jeans back into new jeans, a process the companies describe as textile-to-textile recycling. (reandup.com) That step is harder with denim because old pairs arrive with different blends, stretch fibers, rivets, and wear patterns. Re&Up said it processed the mixed post-consumer material into new cotton and polyester fibers that Isko then wove into Global Recycled Standard-certified fabric. (reandup.com) Madewell’s existing program still splits used denim by condition. The company says gently worn pairs are resold through Madewell Forever, while pairs that do not qualify for resale are sent to partners for recycling into insulation or other products. (madewell.com) Madewell Forever, which is powered by ThredUp, has become the brand’s resale channel for secondhand jeans, dresses, bags, and other items. The site pitches that model as a way to keep clothes in use longer before they enter a recycling stream. (madewellforever.thredup.com) Madewell and Isko have worked together on denim materials before, and this new capsule moves that relationship further into post-consumer recycling. For a retailer selling new jeans while taking back old ones, the point is to show that some of its own waste can return to the rack as denim again. (wwd.com)
