It is an end-to-end system where all clothes are used fully, reclaimed and regenerated into new clothes.

Sadly, fashion today is a million miles away from this ideal. A typical garment is worn only seven times, 85% of clothes end up in landfill, and less than 1% of clothes are regenerated into new clothes. Making fashion circular requires bold, transformational change.

At Stilbaar, we see this challenge as an enormous opportunity. Significant technological advancements in the past few years have made it possible to sell and use clothes in a completely new way—a way that significantly benefits everyone who buys clothes (i.e., all of us).

The key rests in giving every garment an ongoing value, and empowering people to capture that value both instantly and effortlessly. To make that possible requires clothes to be sold in a completely new way, where the focus is not on selling as many new clothes as possible, but rather on maximising the value of every garment sold. This is what drove us to create Stilbaar.

Stilbaar includes several wholly new shopping experiences:

• All clothes are sold with a guarantee that they will be bought back for store credit as soon as the customer is done using them, and that payment will be made instantly, regardless of condition
• Convenient, free return shipping is provided for all sold-back items
  All retail prices are accompanied by an estimated sell-back price, so that shoppers can make informed decisions about which garments offer the best long-term value
• New and used versions of the same garment are sold side-by-side to give shoppers a convenient choice, and to create a stronger market for pre-loved items
• At checkout, shoppers are invited to use previous purchases as real-time currency to pay for their new purchase
• Every garment carries a unique identifier in the form of an embedded NFC chip that ties the garment not only to its history and key care information, but also to a host of after-sale services that can maximise its value (e.g., one-click repair, instant sell-back, etc.)

The result is a completely closed system, where every garment that enters the system effectively never leaves the system. The value of every garment is maximised throughout, and waste is reduced to zero. Importantly, we only sell garments that are made of circular materials that can be regenerated into new fabrics—cotton, linen, modal, etc.—and avoid plastics-based fibres altogether due to the microplastics they emit.

The benefits to you of shopping at Stilbaar are significant. Not only do you get much higher value from every garment you buy, but you can also rest assured you’re shopping in the most sustainable way possible.