Founded in a Hackney studio in 2017 by a former Net-a-Porter buying director and a Pulitzer-finalist critic. Eight years on, we have tested apparel from over 1,800 independent and heritage labels — and championed the 142 that earned the right to be called Worn-Tested.
A Net-a-Porter veteran and a Pulitzer-finalist critic left their posts in 2017 to start an independent review magazine. They disagreed on most things in the first editorial meeting. They agree on this: most fashion media is selling you something. They wanted to recommend something instead.
Editor-in-Chief & Co-Founder
Buying director at Net-a-Porter from 2009 to 2016, where she built the emerging-designer program that introduced London buyers to brands now household names. Imogen leads editorial strategy, brand sourcing, and the Worn-Tested evaluation protocol. Her briefcase contains three identical white T-shirts from three different mills.
Editor-at-Large & Co-Founder
Pulitzer-finalist fashion critic for a U.S. broadsheet before joining Imogen to launch the magazine. Daniel oversees long-form criticism, the Business of Fashion citations, and the editorial-independence policy you are reading further down this page. He owns one suit. It is fourteen years old. It has been re-lined twice.
“ We were tired of reading reviews written by people who had never washed the garment. So we built the magazine we wanted to read — and the wash-test lab we wished existed. ”
Clothing Loves is funded by readers and by affiliate commissions from a small list of retailers we already trust. It is not funded, in whole or in part, by the brands we review. We state this here, unprompted, because most fashion media does not.
Zero paid placements. No brand, publicist, parent company, conglomerate, holding group, or communications agency has ever paid, gifted-its-way-into, or sponsored a review, ranking, certification, or editorial feature on this site. If a label wants to be considered, we buy the garment, anonymously, at full price, from stockists we have used for years. The receipt is filed.
Zero gifted-product guarantees. Brands sometimes send us product after we have already reviewed them. Those parcels go into a separate room and are, with two exceptions, donated to a women's refuge in Hackney. The exceptions: garments we test for a future piece, in which case the donation is logged and disclosed in the article. We have never guaranteed coverage in exchange for a sample.
Affiliate disclosure, in plain English. Most product links on this site are affiliate links. If you click one and buy something, we may earn a small commission at no cost to you. This is how the magazine pays its writers. Affiliate revenue did not — and will not — influence a review's verdict, score, ranking, or tone. Our editorial verdicts are written before the link gets attached. The two workflows are run by different people in different rooms.
The wash-and-wear score. Every Worn-Tested certification is compiled from a minimum of eight real testers wearing, washing, and stress-testing the garment over thirty days. The methodology was written by Imogen Hartwell in 2018, reviewed by an external textile academic in 2021, and is published in full at /worn-tested/. We do not certify a brand based on a single reviewer's enthusiasm. We have rejected 1,658 of the 1,800+ labels we have evaluated since launch.
Corrections. When we get something wrong — we have, twice — we publish the correction at the top of the relevant piece, dated and signed. The originals are preserved. Our email for corrections is [email protected]. It is read by a human on weekday mornings.
The 27% rule. Only 27% of brands featured on Clothing Loves are carried by major retailers such as Net-a-Porter, SSENSE, or Selfridges. The remaining 73% are the long tail — independent labels, family-run mills, single-designer ateliers, and heritage houses the algorithms have not learned about yet. We hunt them on purpose. They are the point.
— The Editors, London & New York & Tokyo
Fourteen stylists, writers, and photographers based in three bureaus. Combined buying-room and editorial experience: ninety-two years. They are the reason an average reader spends over six minutes on a review, against an industry benchmark of under two.
Senior Editor, London
Former buyer at Matches and Liberty. Edits the long-form review and oversees the Worn-Tested methodology. Twelve years in buying rooms before picking up a pen.
Tenure7 years
Bureau Editor, Tokyo
Former fashion director at a Tokyo broadsheet. Runs the Tokyo bureau, sources Asian independent labels, and is the reason our coverage of Japanese heritage mills has any depth.
Tenure6 years
Senior Writer, New York
Former features editor at a New York culture magazine. Writes our long-read criticism and conducts most of the founder interviews. Has worn the same pair of Acne Studios jeans for nine years.
Tenure5 years
Lead Photographer, London
Former assistant at a London fashion-house studio. Shoots every editorial plate, brand portrait, and Worn-Tested campaign. Owns the only medium-format Mamiya we will let near the magazine.
Tenure5 years
Eight years, four chapters. The publication's arc, as told in the year-and-milestone pairs the editors keep in the studio kitchen.
Imogen Hartwell and Daniel Okafor lease Unit 4 at Hackney Studios, 38 Amhurst Road. The first issue is fourteen pages long, photocopied at a print shop on Mare Street, and posted to 312 subscribers who signed up from a single Instagram post. The first review is of a Scottish knitwear label nobody had heard of. It still gets traffic.
The wash-and-wear methodology is published. The first cohort of eighteen brands is certified after thirty-day trials with independent testers. Imogen files the trademark application from a kitchen table. The staff grows to seven.
The Business of Fashion includes Clothing Loves in its 2023 list of independent media to watch, citing our 1,200 reviews and the wash-test methodology. The 2024 list repeats the citation. Newsletter subscribers cross 30,000. Affiliate revenue crosses seven figures for the first time. We add the Tokyo bureau.
Q1 2025 closes with 41,200 readers across 64 countries. The next target: 50,000 by end of year, supported by an ad-light model that lets the editorial team keep saying no. The 1,840th review publishes on a Tuesday. The 1,841st is already in draft.
1,840+
Brand reviews and long-form features published since 2017.
1,800+
Independent and heritage labels evaluated for editorial consideration.
142
Brands awarded the Worn-Tested™ certification to date.
41,200
Newsletter subscribers across 64 countries (Q1 2025).
Cited by The Business of Fashion in 2023 and 2024. Editorial independence policy published in full above. Affiliate revenue topped $2.1M in 2024 — funding a 100% ad-light editorial model.
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