LONDON — Net-a-Porter is taking to heart the British wartime credo, Make Do and Mend, launching its first dedicated customer care and repair service with The Seam.
Net is launching the womenswear service in February. Menswear and more womenswear services will follow at Mr Porter and The Outnet in the spring.
Founded in 2020, The Seam is an on-demand tailoring service that connects users with a network of seamsters, tailors and makers from local communities across the U.K.
The customer offer includes clothing alterations and repairs, bespoke customizations and care and repair for handbags, footwear and jewelry. According to Net, most services are completed within seven to 10 days. There is also an express service, subject to availability.
Customers in the U.K. can book via the site Netaporter.theseam.uk.
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Net’s tie-up with The Seam is the latest in a series of circularity initiatives.
“We believe that beautiful fashion from past seasons can be a building block of our customers’ future wardrobes. We take pride in offering tips and tools to make these pieces last,” said Alison Loehnis, ad interim CEO at Yoox Net-a-porter.
The Seam’s founder Layla Sargent said the new partnership will enable her company and its network of specialist makers “to deliver sustainable solutions to people at scale. We’re dedicated to shaping an industry where the experience of fashion isn’t just about consuming, but about participating in a culture of care.”
The service is for the U.K. only, with alterations only available in London.
In 2021, Net-a-Porter partnered with Reflaunt to offer resale services internationally, with further expansion in new markets set to follow during 2023.
Net and its sibling companies are not the first retailers to offer resale and repair services.
As reported last September, Selfridges accelerated its net-zero carbon-emissions goal, moving its deadline up to 2040 from 2050 as a promise to the Climate Pledge, a cross-sector group of companies committed to reaching net zero 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement.
As part of that commitment, the retailer also set a new target of ensuring that at least 45 percent of its transactions (excluding food, restaurants and homeware) come from recycled products or circular services such as resale, rental, refill or repair.
It has also established “Reselfridges,” a portfolio of circular initiatives it hopes will eventually become the backbone of the business.
Last year, Sojo, the British clothing alterations app, raised $2.4 million in a pre-seed funding round led by CapitalT and Ascension, with participation from Mustard Seed Maze and Vertex Albion Capital.
The app connects clothing brands, and consumers, with individual seamsters who can mend, alter or tailor new or pre-loved clothing.
The app is aimed at extending the lifetime of clothing and generating work for the many small seamster businesses on high streets across the U.K.
Sojo as a direct-to-consumer business and business-to-business one, too. One of the brands it works with is Ganni, which offers free tailoring and repairs to U.K. customers via the app.
This story was reported by WWD and originally appeared on WWD.com.
