We all have clothes hiding in the back of our closets that we no longer wear. But with so many gaps and limitations in the circular economy, it can be hard to know what to do with your old clothes. Now, a new crop of fashion businesses is asking customers to keep hold of them, redesigning them to prolong their lifespan and keep them out of otherwise flawed circular pathways.
London-based studio Phini is one such business, offering bespoke redesign services targeting a luxury clientele. The company initially launched as an app called Loom in February 2025, bringing together over 100 vetted designers to upcycle, embroider, dye, or tailor old garments.
Having struggled to price upcycling as accessibly as planned, it relaunched as Phini in August, positioning itself as a luxury redesign studio instead. The large network of upcyclers was replaced with a closer-knit cohort of six designers, specializing in bridal — partly because of the higher price point and sentimental value — but also open to everyday clothes.
The items people bring to Phini tend to have a lot of life left in them. They could technically continue to be worn as they are, so this isn’t upcycling per se.
But something is holding their owners back: a lack of formal occasions, a hem that doesn’t quite sit right, a color they no longer gravitate toward. Some of Phini’s past projects include separating a wedding dress into a top and skirt, turning a pair of jeans into a bag, and dyeing or altering family heirlooms.
Vogue Business put it to the test.
Endless possibilities
Customers schedule an appointment — either virtual or in-person at the London studio — then share an initial brief with the team. Phini connects you with a specific designer, who can walk you through sketches, dye samples and other options, until you land on a redesign that feels right.
It then sends through a bespoke quote, as well as regular updates via Whatsapp to keep customers in the loop, and leaving space for iterations or tweaks if needed. The big reveal also happens in-person, unless customers opt for a delivery service.
“With Loom, the whole process was digital, but we found that customers wanted to meet the team in-person and have a more personalized service,” says Phini founder Daisy Harvey. “Because everything is bespoke by nature, our designers also wanted an in-person touchpoint to get the measurements right and meet the customers.”
I went back and forth over what to redesign, eventually landing on one of my favorite knit pieces: the Pendle jumper from Herd, made from British wool, traced from farm to finished product. It holds close sentimental value for me.
When I was reporting our Made in the UK series last year, I visited the farm where the wool is sourced, alongside Herd owner Ruth Alice Rands. I sat in the farmer’s kitchen and had a wide-ranging chat about the state of British farming with him and his wife over a cup of tea.
While we were on-site, one of the bluefaced Leicester sheep the wool is sourced from gave birth — the farmer named the lambs Bella and Vogue. The jumper is also impossibly soft and cozy, and I have to hold myself back from wearing it everyday in the winter.
Needless to say, I was hesitant to hand it over. But since I had a color analysis carried out for a story back in June, I’ve been slowly reshaping my wardrobe, and the warm-toned cream color wasn’t one I reached for anymore. It was time for a redesign.
Even though I work in fashion, and have strong opinions about what I do and don’t like, it was surprisingly hard to pin down a design when faced with endless possibilities. Like most consumers, I have a limited knowledge of the technical restrictions of working with different materials, or how certain changes would affect the drape of a fabric, and needed the designer’s input to find a path forward.
Phini often invites customers to share a Pinterest board or inspiration images for this very reason. “The biggest thing is getting a grip on their style,” says Harvey.
“We also have ideas and inspiration images, either from our previous work, or things we’ve seen along the way. A small minority come to us with a super clear idea of what they want, but the majority of people are just open to seeing what’s possible.”
In the end, I decided to dye the jumper navy and add some embroidery around the cuffs and collar. We toyed with more detailing on the chest, but decided it was too busy, and suggestions of adding red were eventually sidelined for white and pale blue.
A lot of the time, Phini’s job is about managing expectations, says Harvey. “Someone might ask us to dye a polyester dress black, which we won’t be able to do [it’s much harder to achieve darker colors in synthetic materials], or they might be looking for a certain type of movement that the fabric won’t give. There’s always something we can suggest, but we have to manage expectations from the outset.”
The barriers of bespoke
The other challenge is intellectual property, continues Harvey. “We haven’t really struggled with this since we relaunched, because we’re more involved in the process now, and we’re very protective of our own designers’ work, as well as other people’s,” she says.
“But sometimes we have to tell customers: we can use this picture as inspiration, but we can’t create an exact replica. Most of the time, the final product is a mix of lots of different inspiration images, so it’s not really a problem.”
When the designers need additional materials, Phini encourages them to use scraps and leftover fabric from previous projects. Because most of them have worked in bridal and luxury for decades, they have a plentiful supply of high-quality materials, so it’s rare that Phini needs to source anything new. “It’s never going to be 100% zero-waste, but we do as much as we can,” says Harvey.
The service certainly comes with a luxury price tag. While my jumper retails for £365, Harvey says it would have cost £200 for the embroidery and £400 for the dye (in this case, the fee was waived).
If that seems steep for an everyday jumper, it’s worth noting that the majority of pieces Phini redesigns are wedding dresses. These bridal redesigns start at £600, with simple alteration projects closer to £200.
Dye is especially expensive because bespoke colors need to be sampled on similar fabrics and the color is built up slowly over multiple dye baths, she explains. “The process is very time-intensive.
Bespoke dyeing really is an artisanal craft.”
Price was also a sticking point with Loom, says Harvey, as is the case with lots of upcycling and redesign services. “A lot of the cost goes into the design side, because we take something that exists and turn it into something else, so there isn’t an existing pattern we can use, and every piece is bespoke,” she explains.
“With Loom, we often found that there was a mismatch between people loving the idea and not wanting to invest that much money in the project. The luxury positioning of Phini has helped with that.
We also only work with really experienced artisans now, whereas with Loom, some of the upcyclers were just starting out. So the price reflects that shift and ensures our designers are paid fairly.”
With such a high price point ruling out the vast majority of customers, this isn’t a scalable sustainability solution that will reduce waste in a meaningful way. But for luxury customers that would otherwise tend toward one-time wear or who wouldn’t otherwise consider sustainability when getting rid of garments, it could be a useful gateway to prolonging their lifespans.
“It’s still such early days for redesign and upcycling,” says Harvey. She still harbors visions of an accessible upcycling service, but concedes that right now, Phini will remain limited to luxury.
“The benefit to that is reaching people who maybe wouldn’t have considered sustainability or upcycling before. At the end of the day, the result is the same: we help someone reimagine their clothes and keep those positive memories alive.”