South Yorkshire designer and sustainable fashion expert Estelle Pearce is taking her message of ethical style to a wider audience with the launch of her new app.
The Closet Remix app was created following months of research and development with the aim of encouraging fashion lovers to think SOUL – style smarter, own less, use what you have and love more.
Doncaster-based Pearce is behind Fashion Fusion CIC, a specialist in sustainable fashion, up-cycling and natural dyeing.
She spent 16 years in the fashion industry, designing and pattern cutting for Next, Jaeger, Monsoon and David Neiper. She has an MA in Digital Fashion, and has run community workshops through Fashion Fusion CIC in Doncaster for many years.
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Now, she is aiming to see her message of stylish sustainability reach an even wider audience with the Closet Remix app.
“I’ve seen how clothes are really made – and how quickly they’re forgotten,” Pearce explained.
“The most sustainable garment really is the one already in your wardrobe and it has been hiding in plain sight, like a seed in the soil, waiting for the right moment.
“There’s also a lot of theoretical impact data behind Closet Remix — the CO₂ savings, the water reduction, what happens when people simply start wearing what they already own a little bit more.
“I’ve been trying to do this for years through workshops and teaching, and I’ve loved every second, but the scale was so frustrating at times.
“You can only reach so many people in a room but now I’m looking at something that has the real potential to change thousands of people’s mindsets — not by preaching, but by giving them the knowledge to make their own choices.”
The app offers advice for feminine, masculine and neutral wardrobes of all ages, tastes and styles, offering suggestions on everyday, work, active and casual choices.
It also offers an analysis of the environmental impact every item in an individual wardrobe has, giving a detailed breakdown of the impact each item of clothing is having and even offering an estimated cost-per-wear figure, explaining what a wardrobe footprint looks like and equating to in everyday terms.
Key facts about fashion’s environmental impact also offer a valuable insight into the way that fashion can shape the world around us.
Fashion items are built to last about five years on average but the app demonstrates how the smart follower of fashion can keep wearing what they love most before thinking about replacing anything as a simple matter of course.
It also offers advice on areas such as seasonal style and how to spread a wardrobe throughout the year for a sustained fashionable look.
“Style smarter, own less, use what you have – love more – that isn’t just a marketing a slogan,”said the designer. “It’s what sixteen years in fashion, and a lot of caring about people and planet, taught me.
“Closet Remix is an app that treats your wardrobe as memory, as material, and as maths and comes out of working with young people and communities on sustainability and creativity.”
The Closet Remix app is free to download from the Apple App Store and other platforms, promising a generous free entry tier and creating a full capsule wardrobe.
Closet Remix is built by Fashion Fusion CIC, a community interest company, which means any profits are reinvested into Fashion Fusion’s mission and not to shareholders. Every subscription helps fund free community work in Doncaster and beyond, providing sustainability workshops, repair cafés, swap events and creative courses for young people.
