Steven Bethell’s mum wanted him to go to law school; instead, he has built a secondhand clothing empire that kicked off a youth shopping earthquake – and is now trying to revolutionise the creation of new textiles and clothes.
About 30 years ago, the Canadian and his wife, Helene Carter-Bethell, set up Bank & Vogue, a group that now buys clothing from about 300 charities in the US and finds a new home for 4m items a week in more than 30 countries around the world.
One of those countries countries is the UK, where, in 2002, the group took on the Beyond Retro vintage fashion business, which sells about half a million garments a year. After opening in Cardiff this summer, it now has seven stores in the UK, taking the total to 17 worldwide and with plans for two more next year. An online shop launched in 2010.
The group paved the way for the likes of the websites Depop and Vinted, which have persuaded many younger shoppers to look for secondhand items as an alternative to fast fashion.
Wearing what appears to be a 10-gallon hat along with a natty jacket and shirt, Bethell is enthusiastic about the future for secondhand shopping, which is booming in the UK and elsewhere.
“I think there is a category shift, in sensitivity and understanding of the environment, you can’t go back from. You can’t uncare that the planet is burning up,” he says.
The evidence is that young people are keen on secondhand clothes, not just because they can find bargains and more interesting pieces, but because they are concerned about the sustainability of the fashion industry, which contributes more to the climate emergency than the aeronautical and shipping industries combined. If trends continue, it could account for a quarter of the world’s carbon budget by 2050.
The global secondhand market is expected to grow 66% in the next four years alone to $351bn, according to a recent report by the US reuse website ThredUp well ahead of the general fashion market, as shoppers seek to save cash and be more sustainable.
“Everybody who has a party thinks the party is going to last but the nice thing about trends is that the trends have all been secondhand [in recent years],” says Bethell, who now lives off-grid on a farm in Ontario guarded by stone lions.
“We are a bit more trend-proof than corduroy. We evolve. Beyond Retro has demonstrated over 20 years [that it] can reflect trends of the day through youth.”
While Beyond Retro faces big competition from pure-play online marketplaces, he sees the likes of Vinted, eBay and Depop as allies, not rivals. “My enemy is not Depop and Vinted. My enemy is fast fashion and people that are treating fashion like lettuce,” he says.
So keen is he to take on the behemoth of fast fashion, Bethell agreed to meet Kourtney Kardashian, appearing for “about four seconds” on her TV show to expound the virtues of recycled fashion and advising on her capsule collection with Boohoo. Bethell is not sure that his effort had any effect on Kardashian’s millions of social media followers but says he is “proud that I am trying”. To date, Bank & Vogue claims to have saved 500,000 tonnes of product from landfill. The group has a facility in India that sorts, grades and processes textile waste for recycling and reuse. Its aim is divert more than 680,000 tonnes by 2025.
Beyond Retro takes a tiny proportion of trendy items – what Bethell calls the “pixie dust” – and sells them in its 17 stores or online.
Of the rest, about 40% is sold to Latin America for resale and reuse and more is sold to “grading houses”, which sell on a large proportion to African countries for resale. About a fifth is cut up for “wiping cloths” in various industries and approximately another fifth is shredded for use in items such as mattresses and car doors.
Bethell is working on changing that model. “Right now, we can sell everything. Really the question is: ‘Can you move up the evolutionary ladder?’ Instead of shredding and making insulation for car doors, can you make a component for a garment?”
Today, less than 1% of all clothes thrown away globally are recycled back into clothes but Bethell is hunting for ways to step that up.
Since 2017, Bank & Vogue has also been working with Converse to provide ready-made components, cut from unwanted clothing such as floral dresses and plaid shirts, which the footwear brand uses to create new pairs of shoes.
Last year, the group launched Beyond Remade – which takes parts of unsellable used clothing and upcycles them into glamorous new garments, including skirts, jackets, bags and dungarees.
Bethell says the project is “really is about us showing to brands that we can make luxury from post-consumer material”, and he is working on new brand collaborations expected to be announced next year.
“The idea of using existing material is what every grandmother did, making quilts from scrap fabric. Our best future is looking at the past,” he says.
Looking for ways to recycle fabric that cannot be made into new items is top of his to-do list.
In 2020, Bank & Vogue signed a deal with Swedish chemical textile recycler Renewcell under which it provides 30,000 tonnes a year of used jeans – mostly plus-size US jeans, which are difficult to resell – to be turned into cellulose for new yarns. Other denim is being shipped off for shredding into material that can be turned directly into fibre.
However, such innovation faces many challenges in a global market beset by cost pressures as household spending power is squeezed by the cost of living crisis, while manufacturers are unwilling to shift away from the yarns they know.
A global slowdown in clothing sales has depressed demand for yarn and Renewcell recently scaled back production amid lacklustre orders. While it says there is strong demand from brands, some of which have invested in the company, uptake from fibre manufacturers that could spin its recycled cellulose pulp into yarns such as viscose is lagging amid a surge of virgin viscose coming on to the market.
“We and they have proven that circularity in textiles is not only possible, but here now … Brands need to step up and buy the fibre,” says Bethell.
“This is hard work but I think it’s worth it,” he concludes, noting that several secondhand sellers and recyclers are finding it tough to make money, while Beyond Retro and Bank & Vogue turn a profit.
“My job is to say we started a journey. I’ve been 20 years in resale. We are showing it is possible to have longevity.”
He adds: “I want to be like the Greeks, where before they became citizens they had to promise to leave the planet a better place.”
CV
Family Married, two children, four grandchildren.
Education BA in political studies.
Pay N/A
Last holiday The Bahamas.
Best advice he’s been given “Each day, figure out how to delight your customer.”
Biggest career mistake Putting all his eggs in one basket.
Word he overuses “F**k”.
How he relaxes Farming and moving rocks.
