Response from Sam Baker, Editor, Red magazine

Dear Daisy

Many thanks for your emails, which we have read with interest. Thank you also for contacting Oxfam with your concern that donations of clothing are being turned away and forwarding the charity’s response.

The remark in my editor’s letter was based on an interview with an Oxfam spokesperson for our August 2007 issue. Around that time we had heard persistent rumours that Oxfam and other charity shops (‘Oxfam and co’ in my letter) were concerned by the extremely poor quality of some fast fashion clothing and were having to turn away or recycle some donations because the quality was too poor to sell on. A spokesperson told us: ‘[Oxfam] like to provide some intrigue in [their] shops and [the shops] would be no good if they were full of the same clothes available everywhere else.’ (p.123). Giulia Biasibetti, quoted below, seems to concur when she explains that clothing that cannot be worn again is sold for its fibre content.

As a personal aside, I have, in fact, been turned away from charity shops with bags of my unwanted clothing on several occasions – although this has not been to do with the quality of the clothing, necessarily, but to do with them having too many donations. (Indeed, when I lived in Muswell Hill, North London, one charity shop had a sign on the door turning away donations!).

I agree wholeheartedly that charity shops do amazing work, the point I was trying to make (and which many readers have responded positively to) is that in buying large quantities of disposable fashion, ie clothes that are designed to be thrown away, we are making their incredibly important job harder not easier.

In answer to your second question about the number of pages of advertisements in our magazine: as I’m sure you’re aware, advertising pages generate revenue which funds the production of the magazine. Without this revenue we would have to charge a much higher cover price than we currently do. However, I’m sorry to hear that you find the advertisements get in the way of the articles because we hope reading Red is an enjoyable experience for all our readers.

I do hope this answers your questions. You are welcome to publish this reply on your blog.

Finally, I sincerely hope that you continue to read and enjoy Red.

With very best wishes
Sam Baker
Editor