Tackling Clothing Poverty Through Circular Fashion With Sol Escobar

That’s where Sol Escobar and Give Your Best come in. Sol and her team have built the UK’s first online platform that lets people living in clothing poverty “shop” donated clothes for free – with the same choice, agency, and dignity we all deserve when picking out what to wear. It’s secondhand, but with a serious side of empowerment.

We sat down with Sol to hear how Give Your Best went from a small callout on social media to a movement tackling clothing poverty and fashion waste head-on.

Can you tell us how Give Your Best started and what inspired you to set it up?

So, Give Your Best started when I had been volunteering supporting refugees for a few years. Then lockdown hit, and I realised I wanted to do something more to support, especially the women and children I was working with at the time. The one thing me and my friend had plenty of was clothes we didn’t wear.

So we decided to upload pictures of everything we had into a private Instagram account and share it with the community we were supporting. They loved the idea. They said it was like a shopping experience they hadn’t had in years. One thing someone told me really stuck with me and gave me the idea to do this on a bigger scale.

At the time, she said: “Don’t go to all that trouble to do this for us, because we can’t say no to anything you give us.” And I remember thinking, you internalise not being worth your own decisions, only being worth what you’re given. I wanted to change that, one item of clothing at a time.

What does clothing poverty mean, and how does it affect the people you support?

I think clothing poverty is something that is really misunderstood, because fashion is considered something superfluous, something that isn’t a necessity. But actually, clothing poverty – apart from affecting five and a half million people in the UK – affects your access to work, to education, your mental health, and how you relate to others.

There is plenty of research into fashion psychology that talks about the hindering effects of clothing poverty.

How does Give Your Best help tackle both clothing poverty and fashion waste at the same time?

Like I said before, there are five and a half million people living in clothing poverty. But what’s even more shocking is that at the same time, we’re throwing away £140 million worth of clothing. We could actually be dressing every single person who needs it, several times over, just with the clothes that end up in landfill. We could be solving two issues at once.

That’s what we’re trying to do, and we do it in two main ways. One is having created the first online platform to donate clothes, where communities can shop entirely for free – it’s sort of like a Vinted for good.

And on the other hand, we’ve also created the first pay-it-forward store, which is where we are today. Every item we sell – whether secondhand or from our brand partners such as Reskinned – directly funds a person experiencing clothing poverty to come and shop in the same store, but entirely for free. It’s a truly inclusive retail experience.

What impact have you seen so far from Give Your Best? Any stories that stand out?

Yes – we’ve seen so many of our community grow in this journey with us, and us with them.

For example, two or three of the women we supported through Give Your Best, at the time, one was still waiting for her refugee status, and another had just received it. Over the years, they became our volunteers, they became our friends. Eventually, one of them joined our board of directors and the other became our first employee.

This year, both of them graduated from university – one with a master’s, the other with a bachelor’s degree. And they both wore dresses they got for free at Give Your Best to their graduation. That was a really proud, full-circle moment for all of us.

For anyone donating through Reskinned this Secondhand September, what would you like them to know?

I’d like them to know that with each item they donate, they really are making a huge difference in someone’s life. It’s easy to think an item of clothing can’t make a difference - but it really, truly can.

Clothing poverty is often invisible, but it’s deeply felt. And Sol’s work with Give Your Best proves that fashion can be more than fast trends and landfill piles – it can be a lifeline, a confidence boost, and even a fresh start.

Through our partnership, every takeback you send us has the chance to go even further: keeping clothes in circulation and getting them to someone who really needs them.

So next time you’re clearing out your wardrobe, remember: that jacket you never wear might just be the reason someone else walks into a job interview with their head held high.

Want to get involved? Start your takeback, add your donations, and let’s keep the circle going.

If you’d like to give a little extra, you can also donate directly to Give Your Best through their website. It’s a great place to discover more ways to get involved and make sure your pre-loved pieces end up with the people who’ll value them most. Because fashion’s future isn’t just circular – it’s human.