At the end of next month, at Westfield’s Les 4 Temps shopping centre in Paris, Sojo founder and CEO Josephine Philips will cut the ribbon on the British startup’s first international location.
It’s a big moment for the four-year-old repair and alterations company, which has garnered £2.1 million in investment to date, and counts Ganni, Margaret Howell and Paul Smith among its roster of brand partners. Its concession in London’s Selfridges — which opened in January 2024 following a successful one-month pop-up — marked the first permanent, consumer-facing touchpoint of Sojo, and a crucial seal of approval from the luxury fashion sphere. Partnering with Westfield — whose Paris-based parent company Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield operates shopping centres across Europe, the UK and the US — is a leap into the mainstream, building on recent mass market partnerships with Marks Spencer, Reiss and Arket.
France was high on Sojo’s list for international expansion. When it comes to sustainable fashion legislation, the European Union (EU) is quickly undermining hard-won progress in its bid for “simplification” and competitiveness, but French policymakers have been on a roll. They implemented extended producer responsibility (EPR) several years before the rest of the EU, they banned PFAS (also known as “forever chemicals”), and their hardline proposal to ban fast fashion brands from advertising in the country, while penalising the biggest climate offenders, just passed the Senate (following a short delay while the bill was revised to distinguish between “classic” and “ultra” fast fashion).
“Most of our brand partners operate in other markets, so it was always on the roadmap to expand internationally, but we never found the right market or the right moment to make the jump,” says Philips. The ultimate goal is to get as many people repairing as possible, and locations like Westfield could help tip the balance. “Paris was a natural step because Westfield is French-owned and the legislative support for sustainable fashion in France makes it a no-brainer. Investors often tell us we should be targeting the French market.”
Among that legislative support is the right to repair, which ranks products based on their repairability and mandates manufacturers to make spare parts available. This currently doesn’t apply to textiles, but is expected to by June 2026. What is already at play for fashion is a repair bonus, introduced by the French government in November 2023, to incentivise and subsidise repairs on clothing and footwear.
Under the repair bonus scheme, businesses like Sojo can sign up to become authorised repairers, allowing their customers to access discounts on repairs over €12, at the point of purchase. The discounts range from €7 to patch a hole, snap or tear in an item of clothing, to €25 to replace the lining on a more complex garment. Items that require multiple repairs can qualify for up to 60 per cent off the total repair price. The initiative is funded by the income from France’s Anti-Waste and Circular Economy Act, as well as the corresponding EPR penalties. The ultimate goal is to repair 21.6 million garments by 2028.
As a result, the French market is highly competitive, with over 600 certified repairers for fashion, according to industry association Paris Good Fashion. However, many of the existing players are small and the industry is fragmented. Sojo’s model of bringing multiple repairers under one roof offers a solution to this. The startup also has a more fashion-forward presence, Philips says, which will be cemented by further brand partnerships.
“Once people start repairing, they are more likely to see the value in it and invest in repair on an ongoing basis. Price has always been a barrier to people engaging with repair in the first place, especially when you can sometimes get a new fast fashion item for the same price,” Philips says. “The repair bonus provides a perfect gateway.”
Lessons on legislating repair
While France doubles down on repairs, other jurisdictions are lagging behind, or even backtracking, making it harder for circular fashion businesses to scale. In the UK, there are plenty of multistakeholder initiatives and non-governmental programmes pushing for circular infrastructure, but legislative backing is little more than a distant hope. There is some movement in the private sector, however: earlier this year, Sojo won Ebay’s Circular Fashion Fund, securing mentorship and a £50,000 grant.
As circularity becomes central to fashion’s future, the UK is racing to build the infrastructure it needs.
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“The private sector is actually putting capital behind circularity, and there are some incredible initiatives mobilising brands, but [legislative support] is really [limited to] the French market,” says Philips. “Hopefully, there will be some progress by osmosis, because brands will want consistency across the board if they have to offer repairability in France.”
Long term, there is potential for policymakers in France and elsewhere to offer further support to circular businesses, Philips continues, especially as investors tighten their purse strings. “The capital contribution targeting consumers is great, but I wonder whether there could also be capital put behind helping repair businesses improve operations and efficiency, to drive down the cost of repairs at a more systemic level and enable investment in better machinery or automating processes,” she adds. “Likewise, it would be helpful if VAT was removed or reduced for repair businesses and brands embedding circularity. If we’re feeding the government’s waste reduction agenda, how can we be rewarded financially?”
Readying for an influx of repairs
Between the Paris expansion and the lower barrier to entry provided by the repair bonus, Sojo is preparing for a spike in demand, building out its infrastructure to meet the moment.
In the UK, Sojo’s tailors work in-house at the company’s London studio, fulfilling orders that come direct from online customers, via in-person consultations and drop-offs at the Selfridges concession and Westfield stores, and orders made via Sojo’s brand partners. Orders are then returned to customers at home, or at one of the outposts, within five days. For Paris, Philips has hired a French lead to onboard local tailors and be the ears on the ground. Rather than hire a full roster of permanent staff, Sojo will bolster in-house repairers with a network of freelancers, who can support as needed during busy periods, and two tailors from the London studio will travel to France to make sure the standards and service are up to scratch.
“We are in a much better position now than when we launched previous partnerships, because we have more data behind us,” says Philips, pointing to the Selfridges space and the Westfield London locations. “We know what to expect in terms of size and footfall, and we are able to estimate how many tailors we need to fulfil the order volume.”
In the short term, Sojo is holding back on expanding its brand partnerships to France, but this will be turned on once the Westfield Paris location is up and running, says Philips. The same applies to further markets, including a potential central European studio and more Westfield outposts, which might be on the cards further down the line. “We want to make sure the operations are watertight before launching with brands here and adding other markets. Baby steps!”
Correction: The Westfield Paris location is slated to open later this summer, and will be a Sojo store rather than a concession. Sojo will have some permanent staff in Paris alongside freelancers (23/06/2025).
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