Back to life: kids’ clothes don’t have to be brand new

Photographs Nerys Jones
Fashion editor Jo Jones

The trouble is, kids grow fast. I have three: a couple of trend-chasing teenage girls, 14 and 16, and a nine-year-old boy who rotates just two outfits: a Portugal football kit and a Brazil football kit. For him, fashion is about comfort over trends. For the teens, it’s a blur of changing styles, TikTok aesthetics and what their mates are wearing.

Shopping for kids isn’t easy. Trying to do it sustainably is even trickier. Today’s microtrends move at warp speed. Add growth spurts and shape-shifting identities and you get a pile of barely worn clothes in every kid’s wardrobe. The stats on our clothing consumption are sobering. According to Wrap, the environmental NGO, around 336,000 tonnes of clothing are sent to landfill in the UK every year. An estimated 50,000 tonnes of that is children’s clothing. And while the pull of a £4 Shein crop top is strong (Inside the Shein Machine: Untold should be required teen viewing), so is climate anxiety. “We’ve got three years left before climate change is irreversible,” my 14-year-old announced the other day.

So what do we do? Like many parents, I’ve given the fast-fashion lecture. We’ve glanced at the Fashion Revolution website, created to raise awareness of sustainability issues affecting the fashion industry. I’ve shown them photos of UK clothes washing up on Ghanaian beaches. We’ve talked Greta, landfill, festival waste. The conversations have felt overwhelming and joyless. But a shift is happening – and it’s being led by the kids.

My eldest recently learned to sew at a local community crafting club for her Duke of Edinburgh Award, creating a bottle bag from old jeans and a halter top from leftover toile de Jouy fabric. My younger daughter recently transformed a five-year-old Graphi T-shirt into something entirely new by cutting the neckline and slashing the back, guided by a TikTok tutorial.

Because here’s the thing: social media isn’t just a shop window, it can be a classroom, too. Alongside Snapchat hauls and TikTok “fit checks”, teens are trading DIY hacks, crochet tutorials and mending tips. Preloved, personalised style is starting to trend. As a result, upcycling clubs and crafting groups for kids are in demand. The Fashion School, founded by Caroline Gration, has been going from strength to strength since 2012. A community-interest company with studios in London and Manchester, it teaches kids to design and refashion clothing using old fabrics. “We’re all about making something new from stuff around the house or studio,” Gration told me recently. “The kids are in the driving seat.” Similarly, Chillie London, a kids’ upcycling studio founded by Natalie Hartley and Lydia McNeil, runs popular workshops and parties across London and now Suffolk. “We teach kids not to buy new,” Hartley told me. “And they’re proud of what they’ve made.”

To celebrate this shift, we brought together a group of brilliant kids for a fashion shoot. Styled in upcycled, recycled or preloved clothing or small independent brands, they posed with total freedom. The kids loved the joy and confidence these clothes gave them. At the heart of circular fashion is creativity, play and personality over perfection. Change is happening, one stitch at a time.

Encouraging creativity and care for the planet is the ethos of The Fashion School. Led by tutors with degrees in fashion, classes focus on teaching kids skills that last a lifetime: pattern-cutting, reworking garments and repairs. “Our aim is that everything they create is well-made enough for them to wear and wear,” says founder Caroline Gration.

When your kids grow out of their clothes, think about swapping – nothing is as good for the soul (or bank balance) as good old hand-me-downs. Rally those WhatsApp groups and PTAs to organise swap events and pass on partywear, uniforms, sports kits and even designer pieces (like Stella McCartney’s sustainable styles for kids, pictured left).

A rip or stain isn’t the end – it’s a reason to get creative. Think iron-on patches, visible mending, DIY embroidery or a custom flourish. ‘Sewing or ironing on patches is a good easy fix,’ says bespoke embroiderer Cressida Jamieson. Her top tip for reviving a piece of clothing? ‘Using a water-soluble or iron-off fabric pen, your child can draw a picture on the garment and you can embroider over the pen marks. The item is transformed into something completely unique to them.’

High street brands are getting in on the upcycling act. Marks & Spencer has recently launched Repaired by SOJO, a door-to-door service where you can book a repair or alteration via the website or app and get the item back within a week. You can also donate old kids’ clothing to its Another Life service, an initiative in partnership with Oxfam that helps customers rehome and repurpose their pre-loved clothes and textiles. John Lewis, which has just launched the pre-loved designer concession The Kidswear Collective in its Oxford Street flagship, also runs a FashionCycle scheme where you can take back your old clothes (any label) to be resold and recycled.

Smaller labels often mean smaller runs, less waste and more control. Take Graphi, a sporty kidswear label founded by Amie Witton-Wallace. Made to order (from 100% organic cotton) means no surplus stock. Graphi brings its ethos to people too – its collaboration with artist Will Broome champions neurodiversity, with bold, feel-good graphics and the empowering mantra 'No two brains the same.' Petit Pli, founded by aeronautical engineer Ryan Mario Yasin, makes innovative kids’ clothing that grows with your child. Made from recycled plastic bottles and finished with patented technology, the garments expand by up to seven sizes,  reducing waste. They even do repairs.

Dress too short? Make it a tunic. Outgrown jeans? Chop them into shorts. The bag pictured to the right was made at the Fashion School using oversized needles from strips of old promotional marathon tops. Any excess yarn was then threaded through the bag to create the handles and fringing.

Resell via Vinted and Depop, school uniform banks and Facebook groups. Or donate to Fara Kids charity shops – they support disadvantaged kids in Romania. Community Clothing employs expert craftspeople to create quality, eco-friendly clothing made to last and pass on.

Curated resale platforms like And They Wear, Mini Garms Gang, thelittleloop and Stanley Stores make shopping pre-loved kids’ clothes easy, thanks to founders with a keen style eye. Emma Harrison of Mini Garms Gang says the trends right now are ‘Nineties labels, denim dungarees and vintage American sports jerseys’. Emma sources from warehouses around the world (think Levi’s, Carhartt and Osh Kosh) and also runs The Playground Project, a pop-up of small sustainable kids’ brands (next event: 23-24 August at Kiosk N1C in Coal Drops Yard, London).

Opening image: (left to right) Marlowe Repurposed jacket and skirt, The Fashion School. Vest and socks, M&S. Pre-loved trainers, Nike Dunk from Depop. Gwen Repurposed hoodie and skirt, The Fashion School. Sandals, Toms. Amar Hoodie and shorts, The Fashion School.

Hair and Makeup Elizabeth Hsieh using Innersense and Maria Nila
Fashion assistant Sam Deaman
Photographer’s assistant Alfie Bungay
Models Gwendoline, Amar, and Raphael with Kids London; Marlowe with Ray & Robin