Tag Archives: Oxfam

M&S To Launch Childrenswear Pop-up ‘Kids Shwop Boutique’ For Oxfam

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clothesMarks & Spencer to open first-ever charity Kids Shwop Boutique at Marble Arch store

Shwop Boutique to sell the best childrenswear items donated to Shwopping campaign
A host of celebrities including Joanna Lumley, Abbey Clancy, Rochelle Humes, Peaches Geldof, Alex Gerrad and Zoe Ball have donated items that will be sold
All money raised go to charity partner Oxfam as part of their Mother Appeal initiative
Over 1,000 shwopped childrenswear clothing will be on sale over three days

Marks & Spencer (M&S) is set to open its first-ever childrenswear pop-up store when a three-day Kids Shwop Boutique opens to the public this March in aid of Oxfam’s Mother Appeal.

Open from Thursday 6th – Saturday 8th March at the retailer’s Marble Arch store, the one-off secondhand store will sell the best childrenswear items donated to M&S and Oxfam’s sustainable fashion initiative, Shwopping by the UK public and a host of celebrity donations.

All proceeds raised from the Kids Shwop Boutique will go towards Oxfam’s Mother Appeal campaign – which is being supported by M&S – that aims to raise £10 million for projects that help mothers around the world lift themselves and their families out of poverty for good.

Shwoppers will be able to pick up once loved childrenswear items from Britain’s top style icons and celebrity mums including Abbey Clancy, Peaches Geldof, Alex Gerrard, Zoe Ball, Rochelle Humes, Sarah Story, Mel Giedroyc and Shwopping ambassador Joanna Lumley. And, thanks to the UK government, every pound raised for the appeal will be doubled. *

Each celebrity-donated item will include personal words of wisdom stitched into the fabric of the item allowing advice to be passed onto the new owner.

Entry to the Kids Shwop Boutique is free, but visitors will have to shwop – hand over an unwanted item of kids clothing, using old or unused clothes as their ticket to the exclusive sale.

M&S has asked the public to donate childrenswear items to support the Oxfam campaign through its joint Love, Mum initiative. All other items of clothing donated will also go towards the appeal.

The public can show their support by Shwopping items in any M&S store add their words of wisdom on social media mentioning @shwopping and the hashtag #LoveMum.

M&S and Oxfam’s Shwopping collaboration urges shoppers to donate – or ‘shwop’ – an unwanted item of clothing that will go on to be re-sold, re-used or recycled by Oxfam, cutting waste while raising much-needed funds for the charity.

Since its launch in April 2012, Oxfam has received 6.9 million items of clothing thanks to Shwopping, worth £4.5 million for the charity. All money raised by Shwopping is used to support Oxfam’s projects around the world working to alleviate poverty.

Shwop Boutique

Where: Marks & Spencer, Marble Arch, 458 Oxford Street. London. W1C 1AP
When: The Kids Shwop Boutique is open from 10am – 9pm on Thursday 6th March and 8am – 9pm on Friday 7th and Saturday 8h March 2014
Entry: Free with a shwopped item of clothing

For more information on Marks & Spencer and Oxfam’s Kids Shwop Boutique visit www.marksandspencer.com.

 

What Brits Will Be Wearing On Christmas Day

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bank fashionStudy by Marks & Spencer’s Shwopping initiative reveals exactly what Brits will be wearing on Christmas Day

Almost half of the nation (45%) will spend Christmas Day embracing their inner elf by donning novelty festive fashion items of clothing

One in four (26%) of the nation will be wearing a Santa suit to watch the Queen’s Speech

However, these one wear wonder items are often seen as for Christmas and not for life with over half (51%) banishing them to the back of wardrobes and one in eight (15%) throwing them in the bin come Boxing Day

M&S and Oxfam are encouraging the nation to shwop their novelty clothing after Christmas Day

Three in five (60%) Brits will choose to opt for comfort over style this Christmas with most of us dressing down for the big day.

New stats revealed today show that the nation is divided when it comes to our Christmas Day dress code with comfort and fun key to most people’s festive togs of choice.

A massive 60% of us choose to dress down on the big day with one in four (28%) admitting to staying snug in pyjamas for the duration. However, we do make sure that we get into the Christmas spirit whatever we’re wearing with nearly half the nation (45%) donning an array of novelty gear to help celebrate.

The ever-popular Christmas jumpers pip Santa to the top of the tree when it comes to festive fashion but there are some surprises – with 26% of us adopting the key role of Father Christmas by sporting his famous red suit.

The five most popular novelty outfits are:

•Christmas jumpers 27%
•Santa suit 26%
•Reindeer antlers 24%
•Tinsel ticklers 13%
•Reindeer leggings 6%

Novelty or not, it’s no surprise that the comfort seekers amongst us have a main requirement when choosing their dressed down garb – one in ten (11%) state that an expandable waistband is part of their key criteria when looking for their Christmas Day lounge wear.

However, as the Shwopping by M&S survey also reveals, over half of us (51%) condone these ‘one-wear wonders’ to the back of wardrobe come Boxing Day and one in eight (15%) chuck them straight in the bin. M&S and Oxfam are calling the nation to think twice about doing so and shwop their festive clobber instead.

Joanna Lumley, Marks & Spencer’s Shwopping and Plan A ambassador, said:
“We can ensure even the most novelty of Christmas outfits is given a new life this Boxing Day, by Shwopping, not binning, festive fashion items giving a better Christmas for those who really need it and spreading the loving spirit of Christmas even wider. Your unwanted jumper can do so much good for those in need, so don’t just furtively chuck it away with the wrapping paper and cracker novelties: shwop it, and bring joy to a complete stranger.”

There are some of us that still love to dress to impress on December 25th too. One in three (30%) of us make a real effort by pulling out all the stops and dressing up for Christmas. And it’s Mums who steal the Christmas catwalk crown – 33% of us deemed our mums the most festive fashion proud, leaving dads & aunties languishing at the bottom of the league:

Most Fashionable Festive Family members:

• Mum33%
• Daughter14%
• Grandmother7%
• Dad 3%
• Auntie3%

This December, M&S and Oxfam’s Shwopping initiative is calling on the nation – as it is the season of giving – to ensure no clothing ends up in landfill by shwopping and not binning these unloved items of festive clothing in stores nationwide. It has been revealed that during the Queen’s eight and a half minute speech alone, nearly 16,000 items of clothing will be sent to landfill.

Since its launch in April, Oxfam has received over 6 million items of clothing thanks to Shwopping, worth over £4 million for the charity. All money raised by Shwopping is used to support Oxfam’s projects around the world working to alleviate poverty.

For more information on Marks & Spencer and Oxfam’s Shwopping initiative visit www.marksandspencer.com

So, How Do Charities Spend Your Money?

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Oxfam launches nationwide search to find a member of the public to see for themselves how money donated to the charity is spent

Oxfam is today launching a nationwide search to find a member of the public to travel to one of their projects and see for themselves how money donated to the charity is spent. The successful applicant of this unique opportunity will report back with their personal experience of Oxfam’s work helping communities out of poverty and will feature in a major advertising campaign.

Oxfam’s research highlights that uncertainty about whether donated money gets to where it’s needed or if it even makes a difference long term can be a major barrier to giving. The ‘See For Yourself’ campaign aims to dispel these myths and show how giving just £3 a month to Oxfam really can transform people’s lives. The core of the initiative is being open and honest about how donated money is spent by showing Oxfam’s work from an impartial point of view.

Earlier this year mum-of-two and Oxfam supporter, Jodie Sandford, became the first person ever to take part in ‘See For Yourself’ when she travelled to Zimbabwe to see Oxfam’s work first-hand. Now, in an unprecedented step, the charity is widening the recruitment for the next phase and is specifically looking for someone who is not an Oxfam supporter to travel with them to Malawi, southeast Africa.

Oxfam are looking for someone who is curious and not afraid to ask questions. They will need to be willing to embrace new experiences as the trip itself will be physically and emotionally challenging. The journey will take them to an Oxfam project, where they will meet the local people and share their personal account of their thoughts and feelings about directly witnessing Oxfam’s work.

The whole experience will be filmed as part of a TV, print and online campaign which will launch this autumn to encourage more people to donate to Oxfam on a regular basis.

Oxfam’s Paul Vanags, Head of Public Fundraising added: “Regular donations make Oxfam’s life-changing, life-saving projects possible but we urgently need to do more. We believe that the most powerful way to encourage more people to give is to show them our work through the eyes of someone impartial who’s never seen it before. This trip will not only offer an experience of a lifetime, it will also form the basis of a major initiative to help us find new regular supporters.”

Prospective candidates will need to hold a valid UK passport and be available to travel for up to two weeks in July or August 2012. Recruitment is open from 6-14 June 2012 and Oxfam will be interviewing short-listed applicants on 21-22 June 2012.

To apply go to www.oxfam.org.uk/apply

Oxfam + Maths Expert = Formula for a Happy Christmas!

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7,000 calories, three weeks off work, 15cm of snow and no more than 10 hours of shopping. These are four of the factors that make Christmas perfect according to Oxfam Unwrapped, the charity’s gift range, which has teamed up with maths expert Chris Green today to unveil its formula for a happy Christmas.

The full mathematical formula looks like this (click to enlarge):

Rick Lay, Oxfam Unwrapped campaign manager, said: “Christmas is the busiest time for Oxfam Unwrapped. Around 80% of the money we raise is given over the festive period, so we were really keen to find out what makes people happy at this time of year; what makes a perfect Christmas.

“It’s great to see that ultimately, happiness at Christmas comes down to quite simple things, such as enjoying time off work to spend with friends and family.”

Key ‘happiness factors’ include:

  • Number of calories consumed on Christmas Day (any more than 7,000 calories and you’ll be too stuffed to enjoy yourself)
  • Amount of time off work (just one day off boosts happiness by 70%, with three weeks being the optimum amount)
  • Centimetres of snow (15cm is ideal)
  • Family arguments (more than five and happiness levels plummet)
  • Number of hours spent trawling the shops for gifts (any more than 10 hours and shopping-induced stress sees happiness decline rapidly)
  • Miles driven to see friends and family (0 miles is ideal, with 500 miles generating a 40% reduction in happiness levels)
  • The number of gifts you receive has an impact on happiness (6 gifts gets you to optimum happiness levels), but….
  • ….most crucially, how many gifts you give (even giving just one present makes a huge difference to happiness levels, increasing Christmas enjoyment by 50%).

Chris Green, the mathematician who compiled the formula for Oxfam, adds:

“We conducted research into some of the key factors that people associate with Christmas and calculated optimum scores for each factor.”

What’s your score? For any like-minded boffins out there who want to work out the formula for themselves, this is what your scores mean:

< 50% Roll on January!
50 – 60% Frosty the snowman
61 – 70% Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas
71 – 80% You’ll be rockin’ around the Christmas tree
> 80% You wish it could be Christmas every day

“The good news is that most factors that impact on Christmas happiness are well within our control. Also, despite a lot of people thinking that Christmas is overly materialistic these days, as the formula shows, these types of things aren’t that significant.

“Most people will score between 50 – 100%, any less than 50% and it’s a case of ‘roll on January’!”

Rick Lay adds: “With the act of giving gifts topping the happiness factors, we hope that it will make people realise that Christmas is a time they can make a real difference to the happiness of others. A gift from the Oxfam Unwrapped range will not only make friends and family smile more, it will change the lives of people living in poverty all over the world.  Surely that’s got to mean a happier Christmas all around.”