Black Friday: Why These Local Fashion Brands Are Redefining The Way We Consume

Recycling initiatives and made-to-order brands make a statement on a day fuelled by overconsumption.

It’s Thanksgiving weekend this week and, like all public holidays in the United States, it’s an opportunity for brands to revel in the nation’s other pastime of shopping. The Friday after Thanksgiving is typically reserved for Black Friday to mark the beginning of the Christmas shopping season with heavily promoted sales and discounted prices on offer.

Over the years, the concept has trickled onto our shores, along with Cyber Monday (Monday, November 27), when punters are further seduced by the barrage of discounts being offered from online stores.

To counteract all this shopping mania, several local brands have committed to educating their customers on ways to be more mindful consumers — like Ruby’s “Take B_ack Friday” (no, that’s not a typo).

As part of its new Ruby Says Recycle initiative, this month customers were asked to send in old and unworn Ruby or Liam clothes, collated as part of the Ruby Says Recycle collection. These will be sold in the Newmarket store on Friday, November 24. The “Take B_ack Friday” concept is a way for the brand to remind its customers and community of the need to be more mindful shoppers. The brand has already received nearly 1000 items ready to be re-loved by new owners.

“We were crossing our fingers and toes for our Rubettes to get behind this, and they really have,” says general manager Emily Miller-Sharma.

“We have sensed that this is something that they wanted, but until we actually put it out into the world we can never really know. Looking through the racks of pieces, it’s like watching my life flash before my eyes! So many memories of their creation! It’s been awesome.”

As a Mindful Fashion board member and someone who is passionate about textile waste solutions, Emily is using Black Friday as a tool to re-educate her customers and hopefully the wider population about the need to reassess our relationship with clothes.

“Our goal is to have a mutually beneficial relationship with our customers. We are here to serve them. It’s an interesting thing to balance because so many people are so stretched in their daily lives. We are careful to ask for something only when we really think our customers will benefit from it.

“More broadly, while the concept of circularity is simple, the ways to get there are vast and complex, and they require experimentation. My view is that if you are truly experimenting, sometimes a successful outcome is recognising that the idea doesn’t work.

“So it is imperative that we all — from governments and the biggest of businesses to individuals who buy products infrequently — are fully engaged with forming meaningful solutions together. It can feel scary when you’re in the business of ‘the customer always being right’, but it is necessary.”

Yu Mei founder Jessie Wong agrees. Her brand doesn’t participate in seasonal sales, nor engage in commercial events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

“It is crucial that brands and businesses implement stewardship frameworks, including after-sales avenues for circular and ongoing product stewardship,” she explains.

“For Yu Mei, that looks like care education, archive events (where scraps, end-of-line materials and samples are repurposed into unique pieces) and our buyback initiative.”

From now until Thursday, November 30, Yu Mei will offer double credit on its buyback offer, inviting customers to return their preloved Yu Mei bags for credit towards their next purchase, with the preloved bags destined for refurbishment in-house and given a second life to be on-sold at its archive events.

“Born out of our commitment to circularity, our buyback initiative works to extend a product’s useful life through mending and refurbishing.

Oosterom designer Nicole Hadfeld, who showed her latest collection as part of the Viva Next Gen Show at New Zealand Fashion Week in September, has turned the term Black Friday on its head also by openly stating she will participate in it with the caveat she’ll be producing orders as they are being placed, so there is no unnecessary production involved.

A made-to-order model is at the heart of the brand’s ethos. Nicole is offering 20 per cent off online from now until Cyber Monday, with orders filled as they come so that garments are created specifically for each order.

“At Oosterom, our made-to-order ethos is the antithesis of over-consumption,” says Nicole. “We encourage our customers to shop consciously this Black Friday, support small businesses and focus on quality over quantity.”

Local underwear label Nisa is also subverting Black Friday and referring to the sale period as ‘Gold Week’, taking place this week until Sunday, November 26, when the brand will swap out Black Friday discounts with Gold Week donations to a good cause. Twenty per cent of profit from store sales will be donated to support aid that Médecins Sans Frontières is providing in Gaza, Sudan, Syria and other parts around the world.

For Jessie, she’s found most of her customers are drawn to end-of-line products as they prefer the exclusivity of a one-off item that brings new meaning to the concept of luxury.

While the Black Friday sales frenzy has its detractors, the designers are also pragmatic about its existence too, and offer some sage advice on how to make it work for you in the long run.

“I have been thinking a lot about mainstream American culture, and our adoration of it,” says Emily.

“Don’t get me wrong, I love me some classic imported pop culture — for years I thought the dial tone on telephones in the US was superior to ours because of how often I heard it in movies — but we don’t need to wholesale adopt what becomes mainstream elsewhere. There are growing movements to live in a way that is harmonious with what our people and planet need to thrive — in the US and around the world — and I think our plucky lil’ country can be part of leading it, we just need to get the systems right together.”

For Jessie, it’s a matter of having an awareness of the mechanics of pricing.

“The onus is on businesses not to set unrealistic pricing expectations or discounting rhythms that are unsustainable long term,” she explains.

“Our manufacturer said to me early on, ‘Sale now will kill you later.’ As a brand, that’s true — if you make your own product, the regular discount cycle can be a dangerous dance. However, some sale is inevitable, and no one has an inventory crystal ball — but we try to mitigate it as much as possible.

“As a consumer, if you do participate in Black Friday, I’d recommend planning months ahead on making a considered purchase of something you need in your life and buying quality over quantity so that you don’t become overwhelmed by the frenzy — especially in fashion.

“If the price seems too good to be true, it probably is, and someone is paying for (or rather, not being paid well enough) to get that garment to you somewhere in the production line.”

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