Partnering With Purpose: JCI x Poshmark Canada
Up on the fourth floor in JCI’s Fashion Department, you can’t walk into a classroom without encountering a piece of vintage or secondhand clothing. Students mill about in thrifted jeans and carry tote bags that have lived many lives. Of course, this isn’t just happening within our walls (although we like to turn to our fashion students to see industry trends reflected in real life). According to a recent article in The Economist, the global market for used clothes and accessories is now worth some $100 billion—up from $30-40 billion in 2020.
Why the boom in secondhand fashion? The environment plays a large role. The same article tells us that the fashion industry is responsible for about 10% of global carbon-dioxide emissions, which is more than shipping and air travel combined. It’s a staggering number. With climate change becoming more visible (and increasingly devastating), many people are looking to update their wardrobes in ways that are sustainable and slow.
Price, of course, is another factor. Shoppers love to pay less for gently-used items from their favourite brands. Additionally, there’s the satisfaction of finding a special piece you can’t just buy off the rack. As Anastasia Gassieva, Senior Marketing Associate at Poshmark told us last week: “There was a time when sustainable fashion wasn’t seen as particularly cool or trendy—thrift shopping wasn’t nearly as exciting. Today, there’s a real sense of pride in finding unique secondhand or vintage pieces."
Collectively, we’re seeing a rise in resale marketplaces (both in-person and online). Poshmark Canada, one of the key global players in this space, is a secondhand fashion marketplace that connects buyers and sellers through an app. Their mission is to put people at the heart of commerce, empowering everyone to thrive. Back in May 2024, a few of our fashion students connected with the Poshmark team at an event in Vancouver. From there, a partnership emerged.
How could we combine our companies' two missions? The answer was quite simple: sourcing and upcycling.
As part of our Fashion Business and Creative Arts curriculum, students produce editorials. They come up with creative concepts, then source clothes they style on models to create one-of-a-kind looks. Additionally, in our Core Fashion Design Program, students hand-sew their own garments and then shoot them in a lookbook. Together, Poshmark and JCI saw the opportunity to reconsider where these clothes come from.
Our Fashion Business students were given Posh Credit to order used or new-with-tag items to style for their shoots. Our Core Design students were given the same, except they are upcycling their items to create something entirely unique. You can shop their creations on April 22nd at 2 PM PT. Poshmark and JCI will be hosting a Posh Show (a live shopping and selling experience) in celebration of Earth Day. All proceeds will be donated to Covenant House.
In an industry where clothes are often used and returned for photoshoots, knowing our students can re-circulate their Poshmark items to be loved once more feels like the right direction to be heading in. Just as Poshmark’s mission has promised, our fashion students have been placed at the heart of commerce. Through this initiative, they’re thinking responsibly about how to engage with clothing while building their portfolios. Ideally, they’ll bring this mentality into their careers once they graduate.
We’ll be sharing images and details from these collaborative shoots over the next month. Sign up for our newsletter or follow JCI on Instagram to see the final looks. You can stay up to date with Poshmark Canada here.
Want to join Poshmark? Download the Poshmark App and use the code “JCINSTITUTE” to get C$15 off your first purchase.
