Circular Studio is saving thousands of clothes from landfill
The shop includes second hand clothing for men and women
An independent vintage shop is innovatively reshaping the fashion and second hand business in Wales. Samantha Eastcott, 27, is the founder of Circular Studio located in Caerphilly. Circular Studio is more than just a vintage shop. It is a place that is tackling the issue of fast fashion in a unique and exciting way.
Sam first launched the Circular Studio in January 2024. The business was born when Sam returned to Wales after living in England for a year. After graduating with a fashion marketing degree, she briefly worked in a few corporate roles in England which ultimately was not what she wanted to do.
Her business journey first started as buying and reselling trainers and clothes however after needing more space, Sam started renting a small unit behind a Wetherspoons in Caerphilly. Within eight weeks of opening her first unit, Sam was able to expand to two locations.
Sam is the founder and sole owner of Circular Studio(Image: WalesOnline/Rob Browne)
Now, Circular Studio is operating from a larger unit located in Sir Alfred Owen Way in Caerphilly, as of May 2025. Circular Studio has become a hub for sustainable fashion in south Wales, driven by a simple idea that nothing should go to waste.
What makes the Circular Studio special is its innovative events. One of the most popular is “Second Hand Saturday,” a monthly clothing exchange where customers bring in unwanted items and receive store credit in return.
“I had the idea for this event where you could take your old clothes and get a pound an item in exchange for store credit,” Sam says.
The concept has proven hugely successful. Each event is capped at 100 people, with more than 400 currently on a waiting list. At the most recent session, over 4,000 items were brought in within just seven hours.
The event encourages a continuous cycle of reuse. Customers can trade in clothes, shop using credit, and even return items again in another ‘Second-hand Satuday’ event if they no longer want them. “You’re just keeping it in circulation,” Sam explains. “You’re getting something new and refreshing your wardrobe for nothing.”
Alongside this is the shop’s “Fill a Bag” event, which is a popular event ran by the vintage shop. For a £5 ticket, shoppers can fill a bag with as many clothes as they can fit inside. Some manage to pack in over 20 items, bringing the cost down to pennies per item.
The shop also runs Y2K style events for thrift lovers
“It’s just accessible,” Sam says. “You’re getting a bag of clothing for £5, you don’t see that anywhere else.”
Beyond affordability, Circular Studio is making a measurable environmental impact. Since launching its pop-up events in 2025, the business has helped divert between 45,000 and 48,000 items of clothing from landfill.
The environmental savings are significant. “The numbers are insane,” Sam says. “It’s roughly equivalent to over 100 million litres of water and around 610 tonnes of CO2 emissions.”
“We don’t rag bag anything at all,” she explains. Instead, unsellable pieces are repurposed through workshops, such as sewing courses that teach customers how to turn old jeans into made-to-measure dresses.
“The idea here is that anything we’re not able to sell, we figure out how to upcycle it,” she says. “It just proves there is so much creativity in second-hand clothing.” By using unwanted denim fabric, the sewing workshop helps people learn a new skill and get a well fitted dress out of it too.
The shop also runs a sewing workshop using unwanted denim
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Sam has built her business alone and is still currently the sole owner of the Circular Studio, The business is also supported by a small, close-knit team. Sam’s team consists of Lulu, a third year university student studying fashion, Keeley, who is currently doing her masters and Alice, Sam’s best friend who she met through the business. Alice first reached out to Sam through her early stages of the business.
Even after giving birth to her baby Rory, she returned back to Circular Studio to get back to working three months postpartum, with baby Rory joining the team in sorting and organising.
Sam credits her team and the wholesome environment they have created within the place, “I genuinely couldn’t do it without them,” she says.
Behind the success is a story of persistence. Sam launched the business during a particularly difficult period in her life, juggling pressures in her personal life and the loss of her grandpa on Christmas Eve.
“I think the only reason I’ve been so successful is just genuinely down to resilience.”
That resilience has been tested repeatedly, from financial setbacks to a flood that damaged stock and disrupted operations. Yet the business has continued to grow, fuelled by Sam’s determination and belief in the concept.
Since then, Sam has been nominated as on of the finalists for Young Business Woman award by Business in Wales, an award that recognises the great work that Sam is doing in the sustainable fashion world.
“We are seeing a lot of people now seeing that idea and replicating it,” Sam says, referring to the popularity of the “Fill a Bag” concept. But for her, the goal remains to make fashion more sustainable, more accessible, and meaningful.