Veras Is Building Copenhagen’s Circular Economy One Upcycled Blanket Coat at a Time 

In 2016, Rebecca Vera Stahnke left her position as a project manager for Copenhagen Fashion Week in hopes of finding a home for the city’s discarded clothes. She opened her own resale outpost on a shopping street in the capital’s center known for vintage. Stahnke painted the entire space pink and hung a sign that read “Veras” over the door. But this was not just a place to find lost designer treasures. Stahnke established a swap system where customers can come in, drop off their old garments, and receive points that act as store credit. They also receive one-third of the selling price paid for their clothes. In addition to the swap model, anyone can visit Veras and shop the racks like a regular customer, and they have an e-commerce site to buy from as well. Stahnke and her all-female staff of 12 carefully examine all of the clothes that come in, and if something is unfit for sale, they recycle it. Veras is the only local store in Copenhagen operating a swap strategy, with sales and transactions taking place in-store, online, and at outdoor flea markets in the summertime.

“We’ve created a concept where all clothes are valuable and nothing is wasted,” says Stahnke. Now, she and her team are adding another layer of eco-conscious practices to their operation. They’ve recently partnered with De Forenede Dampvaskerier, or DFD, which is one of the largest, sustainably minded textile-washing companies in the Nordic region. They care for linens used in hospitals, restaurants, and hotels. “At some point, the fabrics are discarded in order to maintain the company’s quality standards,” Stahnke notes. “We wanted to save these fabrics and prove to everyone, including ourselves, that these worn-out textiles could become valuable again, maybe even more valuable than newly produced fashion items.”

Stahnke, along with her Veras team, came up with the idea to create a collection of winter coats from DFD’s discarded blankets and quilts, as well as tote bags from its leftover laundry bags. There are two styles of jackets—short and long—in three different prints, and the bags come in seven different colors, including bright orange and green. All of the pieces are made locally between the Veras headquarters and Huset Venture, a nonprofit socioeconomic organization that aims to create jobs for low-income-earning women struggling to find work. “We chose to work specifically with the quilts and laundry bags because they can be very difficult to recycle,” Stahnke says. “By creating unique recycled items, we ensure that the future owners take extra care of their styles and give them new life.”

The new Veras upcycled collection comes on the heels of Copenhagen Fashion Week announcing an ambitious sustainability initiative. Many of the city’s most globally visible brands are just beginning to focus on eco-practices or ramping up their existing strategies, but Veras is continuing to build its circular business from the ground up. Stahnke plans to work on more projects like this one with DFD, and she hopes that other communities around the world will take notice of the way Veras operates and create their own circular microeconomy. “Our concept can definitely be implemented in all kinds of local communities,” she says. “It’s about making it easy for everyone to share their wardrobe and engaging people in something that is bigger than they are. Our ultimate goal is to save as much clothing as we can by helping people share more, buy different, and use longer. It’s about creating a space for people to explore their own personal style without damaging our planet.”