Dalziel & Pow Rewrites the Story of Unsold Fashion for Crisis

Crisis, the charity dedicated to ending homelessness in the UK, has relaunched its fashion upcycling initiative Create for Crisis with a bold new retail identity and supporting campaign assets created by global strategy and design studio Dalziel & Pow.

The new identity launches as Crisis marks this year’s Secondhand September with UNSOLD. RETOLD., a creative collaboration bringing together 12 independent makers and designers to transform unsold donated garments into one-of-a-kind fashion pieces. Giving clothing a new chapter, the initiative sees garments that might otherwise have gone to textile recycling reimagined, reconstructed and brought back to life.

For UNSOLD. RETOLD., the 12 makers were invited into the charity's Canning Town warehouse to select unsold donated garments with a simple brief: give them a new life.

The result is a series of limited collections in which existing garments have been cut, reconstructed, woven, embellished, printed, painted and transformed into completely new, limited-edition pieces. The collections are available across 16 Crisis stores in London and online, with 50% of sales going directly towards Crisis’ work to end homelessness and 50% returning to the independent maker.

A Handcrafted Visual Identity for London Fashion Week

Dalziel & Pow partnered with Crisis to create a distinctive identity for the ongoing maker collaboration programme Create for Crisis and to bring UNSOLD. RETOLD. to life in-store. With the campaign launching alongside London Fashion Week, the brief was to create something with enough personality, energy and attitude to stand alongside the work of the makers themselves.

The result is rooted in the spirit of craft and collaboration. Dalziel & Pow developed an identity featuring a lino-cut and printed logo using traditional techniques to reflect human touch. Alongside it, the original Crisis logo has been playfully reworked, with a strip sliced from the top of its square to mirror a pair of scissors in action.

To complement the branding, the studio created a trio of hand-printed symbols: a cluster of pins, a sustainability icon wrapped around a button, and a pair of scissors. These visual cues appear throughout window displays, rail boards, and swing tags under the overarching campaign headline: UNSOLD. RETOLD.

Bespoke Storytelling for 12 Independent Designers

Within Crisis stores, each participating maker has received a dedicated space featuring tailored storytelling assets based on their creative practices and individual background.

The 12-strong collective spans fashion, textiles, knitwear, weaving, reconstruction and upcycling. It includes Marie Lueder, founder of London fashion label LUEDER (Elephant & Castle); Hadiyah Hussain (Walthamstow); Olli Hull (Camden and Streatham); The Marcon Court Project (Peckham); Planet Soph (Hackney and Kilburn); Owen Edward Snaith (Finsbury Park); Grandpa’s Shirts (Islington); Kabo Clothing (Brick Lane); Ashley Jess Knight (Camberwell); Green Ancestors (Ealing and Putney); Sean Marsh (Muswell Hill); and Cheshe (Dalston and Archway).

Molly Goldby, Designer, Branding & Communications at Dalziel & Pow, said: "It’s always a joy working with Crisis and this was no different. To mirror the craft of 'UNSOLD. RETOLD.', we gave the campaign an organic, handmade style and lino cut the Create for Crisis logo. Incorporating the designers' sketches and annotations enriched the final result, making this a collaborative, experimental, and joyful project."

Liz Choonara, Executive Director of Commerce and Enterprise at Crisis, said: "Dalziel & Pow have developed a bold new identity for Create for Crisis and brought UNSOLD. RETOLD. to life in a way that celebrates the individuality at the heart of the project – creating a cohesive campaign that still gives each maker’s own creative identity space to shine. Dalziel & Pow’s work on Create for Crisis and UNSOLD. RETOLD. builds on its ongoing creative relationship with Crisis, including last year’s Pop-Up Crisis on Savile Row and the Crisis Dropshop retail concept. Together, the new identity and campaign give unsold clothing a new story, independent makers a platform and Create for Crisis a bold new presence in-store."

To explore the range, browse the full Create for Crisis Collection.