Welcome to
Cumbria Clothing Collective
Reducing Cumbria’s clothing waste – one item at a time
10am - 4pm, Saturday 28 Feb 2026
Join Restore Cumbria and Cumbria Clothing Collective at Rheged for an inspiring and insightful day exploring sustainable fashion, repairing clothes, and the circular textiles economy.
In this brand new event – the first of its kind in Cumbria – we’re hoping to get people thinking more consciously about the clothes they wear, the environmental cost of fast fashion, and the opportunities to re-use, re-wear, restore, and re-sell garments.
“The work of the Cumbria Clothing Collective is hugely important and shares much with my business, Community Clothing.
From repairs to swaps, it’s everything we need in clothing for the future!”
Patrick Grant – Founder of Community Clothing and judge on The Great British Sewing Bee
Why we need to reduce clothing waste
Globally, fast fashion is creating an environmental disaster from production to disposal.
Pollution from all stages of the industry is damaging ecosystems and creating an unmanageable waste problem, particularly in the Global South.
Due to cheap clothing prices and media influence, consumers are purchasing in far greater quantities than ever before and far in excess of what they need. Garments are discarded after minimal wear, being sent to landfill or shipped overseas by waste management companies.
Exploitation is commonplace in the manufacturing process with unsafe working conditions, cheap and slave labour being documented.
Cumbrian councils deals with 350 tonnes of clothing waste every year, excluding everything processed by charity shops!
items of clothing dumped every second.
items of clothing in our wardrobes.
26% will not have been worn in the last year.
of unsold clothes end up in landfills.
We waste billions of items of clothing every year.
of unsold stock was burnt by Burberry in 2021.
They’re not the only clothing company that does this.
There are enough clothes in the world now to clothe the next
Ways to begin...
Taking a fresh look at your clothes, how you care for them, where they come from and where they end their life makes a huge difference in how we help reduce clothing waste.
Click the links to begin your mindful clothing journey.
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