Lot van Os didn’t set out to change the fashion industry. He just cleaned out his closet. But what started as a Sunday chore grew into Free Fashion: a movement that turned excess into abundance, trash into trust, and passers-by into participants.
At Amsterdam Business Forum 2025, Lot shares how Free Fashion grew from a wooden rack in his street to full-sized stores, pop-ups across the Netherlands, and media headlines from Portugal to China. His story isn’t about building profit, it’s about redefining value.
Lot’s story begins not in a boardroom, but in a backyard workshop. He built a wooden rack, placed it on the street, and invited the neighborhood to take and leave clothes.
It was humble, honest, and it worked.
People didn’t just donate their clothes, they shared stories, rang the doorbell, and started conversations. What Lot uncovered wasn’t just excess, it was untapped abundance.
“Every year, we buy 50 items of clothing and wear them only seven times.”
That statistic stuck. And instead of criticizing it, Lot rebranded it.
He called it Free Fashion.
Concrete lesson for leaders: Before creating something new, look at the abundance already around you. Iin your business, in your teams, in your community.
Lot treated Free Fashion like a real brand. Not an activist campaign. Not a charity project. A brand.
There were photo campaigns. Styled shoots. A catwalk.
And finally: a full-size fashion store in Tilburg, 200 square metres of curated secondhand clothing, complete with tags, receipts and a cash register.
Only one thing was missing: the price.
“You just pay with a smile.”
People travelled from all over the country. Some waited over an hour in line: not to buy, but to give. Even the shoplifters showed up. Lot laughs: “We even have shoplifters, which is very funny, because everything is free.”
What they really built wasn’t a store. It was a space for trust, for joy, for redefinition.
Concrete lesson for leaders: If you want people to embrace change, treat it with the same pride and polish you would give a product launch.
If you’re wondering how any of this makes money, so is Lot.
“We pretend to be a store. But what we really do is start conversations.”
In just one year, Free Fashion sparked nearly 100,000 conversations about overconsumption and sharing. That visibility led to pop-ups in Amstelveen, Utrecht and Rotterdam. Even international media from Portugal to China picked up the story.
But at its heart, the work remains the same:
Concrete lesson for leaders: Don’t just count euros, count conversations. Sometimes dialogue is the most valuable currency you can create.
Lot closed with something unexpected. He asked the audience to name their inner voice, the one urging them to make the world a little better. Someone shouted: “Arjan.”
From then on, that voice had a name. And a mission.
“If you’re designing something beautiful, but it doesn’t make people truly happy, listen to your inner Arjan. If you treat your employees well, but the planet poorly, listen to your inner Arjan. We all have that voice. We just need to hear it more often.”
Free Fashion didn’t come from a five-year plan. It came from a closet cleanout, a single question, and the courage to try.
If Lot and his girlfriend can do this in one year, imagine what you and your team could do in ten?
Lot’s story is playful, but his lessons are serious. They invite you to rethink abundance, value, and the choices you make every day as a leader. So here are five questions to spark the conversations that matter most: