John Lewis has partnered with The Little Loop to enter the childrenswear rental market.

In a mission to drive forward the need for sustainability and longevity in children’s clothing, the department store giant said the partnership will give parents access to the biggest wardrobe of rented kids’ clothing in the UK.

An initial 51 product range for babies to age 12 launched yesterday (May 25th), with special consideration for sustainable raw materials.

The brainchild of Charlotte Morley [pictured], who successfully pitched for investment on BBC’s Dragon’s Den, thelittleloop allows clothes to be rented and swapped at any point, with customers receiving credit to use on future bundles. All returned items get professionally cleaned, and if needed mended, then are rented out again at a price that reflects their condition. Plans start at 18 pounds per month with customers able to rent 6 -7 products at a time.

When the clothes reach their end of their usable life, they’ll be recycled in the UK, John Lewis said. Hubbub, an environmental charity, estimates 183 million outgrown baby clothes are kept unused in UK wardrobes.

Glynis Williams, John Lewis & Partners kids and baby fashion category lead, stated: “We’re thrilled to be launching a collection of baby and childrenswear clothing with The Little Loop, giving customers a more sustainable option to rent high quality John Lewis clothing through a trusted partnership.”

“The partnership with The Little Loop reflects our ambition to offer more sustainable ownership options and forms part of the commitment we made to our customers to reduce the greenhouse gas footprint of our textile supply chains by 50 percent by 2030.”

Find out more at John Lewis