TheIndustry.fashion Awards Winners' Interview: Jody Plows, CEO, Nobody's Child

In this series, TheIndustry.fashion continues to celebrate the achievements of the winning brands from TheIndustry.fashion Awards 2025 through a collection of dedicated interviews.

With the Awards dedicated to People, Planet & Purpose, we set out to uncover the strategies driving positive change in the industry - from sustainable and circular practices to strategies amplifying diverse voices and supporting community and charitable causes.

Within the Planet category, Nobody's Child was awarded Best Use of Technology. CEO Jody Plows discusses how the brand leverages technology to ensure transparency and traceability, what role regulation should play in holding the broader fashion industry accountable, the barriers preventing more brands from adopting circular models, and her advice for brands.

What are the core values that drive Nobody’s Child and how are they reflected in the business?

At Nobody’s Child, we’re led by purpose – but it’s the people who bring it to life. We believe in optimism, fuelling our creativity and driving progress. We encourage bravery and agility, because we’re all constantly evolving, and its kindness over it all that leads the way, from how we treat each other to the way we care for our planet. Everything we do is guided by this shared set of values that shapes our culture, decisions and everyday actions.

What technologies do you use to ensure transparency and traceability?

Our Digital Product Passport pilot initiative, launched years before anticipated government legislation, is a significant step toward our goal of enabling Nobody’s Child customers to make informed choices whilst addressing one of the biggest challenges faced by the industry: supply chain traceability. It’s the biggest and most complex sustainability project we’ve worked on at Nobody’s Child and we’re extremely proud of it.

Nobody's Child Digital Product Passports

What was the significance of winning the award for Best Use of Technology?

Winning awards for our pioneering DPP pilots makes us so proud! It’s wonderful to be recognised as we’re one of a handful of brands that are leading the way on this. We’re so grateful for every award that we’ve won as it helps raise awareness. Our plan from the start has always been to pilot and scale and we hope that our learns, along with the wins, will help inform other brands who might be at the start of their journey. Supply chains in the fashion industry are notoriously complex and collaboration can really move the needle. We couldn’t have done it with our innovative tech partner, Fabacus, and Fairly Made, who we work with on traceability.

How do you ensure that your production processes minimise waste and environmental impact?

We’re constantly looking for ways to reduce our footprint and make smarter choices in materials, processes and partnerships. We’re measuring our greenhouse gas emissions in full and we’re now using a new methodology, favouring reduction over offsetting. For us, carbon reduction isn’t just a target – it’s a core strategy that enables localised, measurable change and reduces the impact of our operations. We’re also working towards a circular fashion model that keeps resources in use and out of waste for longer. Our design team have started to adopt circular design principles and we’re proudly partnered with Zoa on an integrated rental service on nobodyschild.com and SOJO for repair and alternations. Plus, we’ve recently launched a takeback trial with Reskinned for re-sale on eBay.

Can you tell us more about your partnership with Reskinned, why you've entered this partnership, and how it's doing so far?

Offering our customers a new way to wear Nobody’s Child through resale is a such a great step forward for us as a brand. Pre-loved has been a part of our strategy for a while but Reskinned and eBay are leaders in the space, making the service even more accessible. So far, take up has been strong, with dresses and jumpsuits representing 75% of the mix. We’ve got some ideas on how we can build on this next year – watch this space.

Why should brands and retailers be championing people, purpose and planet today? Any advice?

We believe that people, planet and product are the three core pillars of our purpose. They are what guides us to progress, our forth pillar. We find that this structure helps us to navigate our journey towards a more circular and responsible fashion industry, and that this helps to holistically address the most pressing issues that we’re facing on Earth today.

As a brand already committed to circularity and traceability, what role do you think regulation should play in holding the wider fashion industry accountable - and what kind of policies or standards would you like to see implemented?

I’d like to see a world where brands are celebrated for doing the right thing, where we all feel supported and can learn from each other, as we navigate new regulations and requirements. This combined with clearer rules and mandatory measures would create a level playing field for everyone across the industry. Many of us hope that the money raised through mandatory measures, such as EPR schemes, will support the growth of innovations such as fibre-to-fibre recycling. Fabrics made from recycled textiles will keep materials in the fashion industry, address fashion waste, and alleviate dependency on virgin raw materials. Fibre-to-fibre recycling at scale will be a transformative addition to circular business models.

What barriers do you think prevent more brands from adopting circular models like yours? Any advice?

Linear business models have been the norm for as long as most of us can remember. Transforming your business into a circular model takes a huge mindset shift and you have to go right back to the beginning in order to re-shape the way you do business. It’s a huge leap of faith and therefore we’d suggest starting small. At Nobody’s Child, we’re trailing circularity through partnerships that reduce waste, with a view to scaling them. We believe that it’s not about becoming circular straight away, it’s about being less linear with every step you take.

What can customers expect from Nobody’s Child over the next year?

2025 is a huge year for Nobody’s Child. We turn 10 in October – and we’re very much looking forward to celebrating with our customers, partners and team. We feel very grateful to have them on this journey with us. We’ve also started to put DPPs on over 1000 clothing styles from AW25 and we can’t wait for you to start tracing the journey your clothes have been on through them.

TheIndustry.fashion People, Planet & Purpose Awards will be back for 2026. Find out more at the theindustry.fashion/awards/. For sponsorship enquiries, please email [email protected]