Tell us about yourself and give us a quick overview of Bank & Vogue?

As Co-Founder of Bank & Vogue, I’ve been working in the post consumer textile space for more than 25 years, dedicating my career to finding innovative and practical solutions to what I often call “the crisis of stuff.” Together with my team, I’ve travelled to over 30 countries, learning from and working within some of the most vibrant and robust second-hand markets in the world.

Bank & Vogue today is one of the largest players in the global pre-loved textile industry and home to the world’s largest remanufacturing facility for used clothing, where we bring the circular economy to life taking post-consumer waste and transforming it into relevant, desirable products. We also collaborate with major global brands, helping them elevate and expand their sustainability platforms.

Bank & Vogue is the parent company of Beyond Retro, Europe’s leading vintage retailer, and one of the world’s largest traders in pre-loved textiles. With over two decades of leadership in the reuse space, we offer a uniquely holistic perspective spanning wholesale, retail, remanufacturing, recycling, and upcycling. With headquarters in Ottawa, Canada, and an office in London, UK, we are uniquely positioned to drive circular solutions on both sides of the Atlantic. Our remanufacturing facility, located in the Special Economic Zone of Gujarat, India, allows us to leverage the capabilities of the Asian manufacturing market while applying a circular lens.

Our end-to-end capabilities mean we can manage used apparel at scale from bespoke sorting and digitisation, to remanufacturing and resale. We currently process and digitise thousands of garments per month for e-commerce, giving us powerful data an insights to help brands transition into truly circular business models.

Bank & Vogue began humbly in the early 1990s, when my wife Helene Carter-Bethell and I started the business in the basement of our home, working with the Salvation Army to give clothing new life. Since then, we’ve grown into a global leader, but our mission remains the same: to provide creative, scalable solutions for the overwhelming amount of “stuff” we consume and to play a meaningful role in building a truly closed-loop economy.

In my spare time, I live off the grid in the Canadian wilderness which gives me both inspiration and perspective on why this work matters.

Bank & Vogue has been a key player in the global used clothing space for many years. Can you share some of the company’s most impactful initiatives or success stories?

At Bank & Vogue, we’ve always seen ourselves as bridge builders, connecting surplus with demand, and waste with new opportunity. One of our proudest achievements is scaling the concept of “the after market” for clothing. Each year, we divert hundreds of millions of garments from landfill, moving them into reuse channels around the world. Our work with Beyond Retro in Europe has shown how you can take second-hand at scale and make it aspirational, accessible, and part of mainstream fashion. For me, success is when consumers no longer see “used” as lesser, but as the first choice.

Bank & Vogue recently partnered with fashion house Coach to explore new possibilities for circular design, bringing together Coach’s craftsmanship with Bank & Vogue’s expertise in post-consumer textiles. Through this collaboration they reimagined discarded materials at scale, transforming them into one-of-a-kind pieces that celebrate both luxury and innovation. The partnership not only diverted waste from landfill but also showcased how iconic fashion houses and circular leaders can work hand-in-hand to create scalable, stylish, and sustainable solutions proving that luxury and reuse can coexist beautifully.

You recently spoke at the Textiles Recycling Expo in Brussels on the topic"Denim: from upcycling to recycling". What were your key messages from that session?

The key message I wanted to leave behind is that denim is both a challenge and an opportunity. On one hand, it’s an iconic, durable product but it’s also one of the most overproduced and chemically intensive textiles out there. The opportunity lies in its longevity: denim is made to last, which makes it perfect for second, third, and fourth lives through reuse and upcycling. But beyond upcycling, we also need to invest in real recycling, fibre-to-fibre solutions that can take cotton-rich denim and turn it back into high-quality feedstock for new garments. My takeaway was: we can’t stop at upcycling; the future lies in closing the loop entirely.

What are some unique challenges and opportunities you see in the market in North America?

North America is both the largest generator of post-consumer textiles and one of the least efficient markets for reuse and recycling. The challenge is the sheer scale of waste, combined with a cultural tendency to favour new over used. But this is also the opportunity: the size of the problem means the size of the solution can be transformative. There’s a growing appetite among younger consumers for vintage, resale, and sustainable fashion and that cultural shift is opening up space for new business models. The infrastructure, however, still lags behind Europe. Building collection systems, logistics, and end-markets in North America is both the challenge and the prize.

With the US edition of the Expo launching in Charlotte in 2026, what excites you most about the event coming to North America?

What excites me most is the chance to gather all the players in one room from collectors and graders, to innovators, recyclers, brands, and policymakers on North American soil. For too long, the conversation has been happening elsewhere, while the U.S. continues to generate the lion’s share of global used textiles. Bringing the Expo to Charlotte is about ownership: saying, “this is our problem too, and we have the ingenuity and scale to lead on solutions.”

Why do you think now is the right time for a focused platform like this in the US?

The timing feels right because the conversation has shifted from “should we?” to “how do we?” Consumers, brands, and legislators alike are recognizing the urgency of circular solutions. Europe has been leading with Extended Producer Responsibility and policy frameworks and the U.S. is starting to pay attention. A platform like this gives North America the chance to catch up quickly, to learn from global best practice, and to create models that reflect the unique scale and culture of the U.S. market.

What’s your vision for the future of circular textiles, and how can collaboration accelerate that future?

My vision is that no garment ever goes to landfill, that every fibre, button, and zipper has a next life. Getting there requires collaboration across the value chain: brands designing for durability and recyclability; collectors and graders improving sorting; recyclers investing in scalable technology; policymakers creating incentives; and consumers embracing reuse. No one actor can close the loop alone. Collaboration is what will move us from pilot projects to true circular systems at scale. If we work together, the circular economy in textiles can shift from being a niche conversation to the default way fashion operates.