Derry's ‘Pop-Up Preloved Shop' raises over £2000

Live Here Love Here, a civic pride partnership from environmental charity Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, was responsible for bringing the shop to the North West as part of its Fashion Forever campaign. It opened for one day only on Saturday, 4th March, and was a culmination of the successful ‘Stop! Drop, Shop Preloved’ movement which aimed to promote sustainable fashion practices and encourage people to contribute their unwanted clothing items.

Fashion lovers from across the region came forward to generously donate over 1,500 items, which were then subsequently repurposed for sale in the ‘Pop-Up Preloved Shop’. All proceeds raised are to be donated to Foyle Hospice.

The campaign is supported by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), Foyleside Shopping Centre, Inner City Trust's Fashion & Textile Design Centre, and Foyle Hospice.

Siobhan Purnell, Tackling Textiles Co-ordinator at Live Here Love Here, said “Introducing people to the wonderful world of preloved/second hand clothes has been greatly received by the shoppers at Foyleside. A very big thank you to all our partners and everyone who donated and took part in the campaign. Our aim is to normalise preloved shopping rather than buying brand new. How we consume and produce our clothing has the huge environmental impact and our message continues to be reuse, repair, reimagine the clothing you already have.”

Not only did the locals participate in upcycling their unused and unwanted clothing, but Emmy-nominated actress and producer Roma Downey also contributed to the campaign by donating several items, including dresses that she had worn on the red carpet.

Deirdre Williams, Business Development Manager at the Fashion & Textile Design Centre (FTDC) said: “The collaboration between Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, Foyleside shopping centre, Foyle Hospice and the FTDC made for a very successful Fashion Forever event. The FTDC ran a series of workshops in the centre in the 3 weeks leading up to the pop up finale and really enjoyed showing shoppers and passers-by the art of repair and repurpose. The people of Derry and the North West really got involved with the event, by donating, purchasing and upcycling of pre loved clothing. We hope that this is the first of many more events like this and investment in circular fashion becomes a normal part of everyone’s routine.”

The opening of the ‘Pop-Up Preloved Shop’ was a momentous occasion and one that caused great excitement with Foyleside shoppers. Fergal Rafferty, Foyleside Centre Manager, said: "The ‘Pop-Up Preloved Shop’ event was a great success, with the community coming out in their droves to support sustainable fashion. It was such an inspiration we even had customers wanting to know would it be coming back next week!

“We believe that the event, as well as the entire ‘Stop! Drop, Shop Preloved’ campaign, presented a great opportunity to support sustainable fashion, while also helping to raise vital funds for Foyle Hospice”.

Jacqueline McMonagle, Foyle Hospice Shops Area Manager, said: “We are overwhelmed by the donations and support we received from the local community and are very proud that our Hospice Shops play such a large role in the sustainability movement year-round. Stop, Drop Shop Preloved was a wonderful opportunity to work with Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, Inner City Trust's Fashion & Textile Design Centre and DAERA and we cannot thank them enough for including Foyle Hospice. The Foyleside Shopping Centre continues to be a huge supporter of the Hospice and having the Pre-Loved Shop there was an added bonus for us. We want to thank everyone involved in making the event such a huge success.”

The event organisers would like to extend their sincere gratitude to everyone who participated in the campaign and donated their clothes. For more information, please visit foyleside.co.uk or keepnorthernirelandbeautiful.org