M&S to start clothing repair service so customers can give clothes another life from just £5

Marks & Spencer is launching a repair service for the first time so customers can get their clothes mended.

A study from M&S shows that only 10% of the population is confident enough to repair clothing themselves and 60% of consumers look for retailers to offer more services which support them to lower their carbon footprint. M&S is now partnering with clothing repair and alterations experts SOJO for the new initiative.

Founded in 2021 by Josephine Philips, SOJO is on a mission to make tailoring and repairs more accessible. The small but growing team is made up of tailors, riders, developers and creatives working to accelerate change in the fashion industry.

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The ‘M&S fixed by SOJO’ hub, launching in August, will help shoppers give their clothes "another life" and reduce textile waste. The partnership builds on the retailer's established clothes donation scheme with Oxfam, which has collected over 36 million items of clothing raising an estimated £23m to tackle poverty around the world.

Through a dedicated online hub, people will be able to select and book a range of bespoke repair services - from zip replacements to invisible knitwear mending – all through one online form. With repairs starting from just £5, M&S clothing can be sent, repaired by SOJOs in-house repair team and returned directly to the customers' doorstep within seven to 10 days.

The partnership with SOJO comes as M&S reveals Plan A - Another Life. This brings together all its circularity services into one place, including its Beauty Takeback Scheme with Handle and its long-running clothes donation partnership with Oxfam, which was formerly known as Shwopping.

As well as a range of services, the Plan A - Another Life platform will have a selection of 60 second ‘how to’ videos covering everything from debobbling knitwear to adjusting hemlines - created by M&S’ team of in-house technical experts.

Richard Price, managing director of clothing and home at M&S, said: "At M&S, exceptional quality products are at the heart of everything we do, and we want to ensure that all our clothes are too good to waste. Through the launch of our repair service, we’re making it even easier for customers to give their clothes Another life, whether they are using our new repair service or long-standing clothes recycling scheme."

Josephine Phillips, founder and CEO of SOJO, added: "It has always been a core mission of ours at SOJO to make repairing clothes mainstream and to extend the life of as many garments as possible. I’m so excited that M&S has chosen to launch a repair service with us at SOJO as it’s an incredibly big step towards that mission.

"As a brand that has remained a firm constant in almost every household and wardrobe in Britain, this partnership with truly bring easy, accessible and convenient repairs to the masses. Beyond that, as one of the longest standing British brands, having M&S join our Pledge to Repair adds such a great weight to our call for industry-wide change here in the UK."