Today’s fashion industry is linear. It should be circular. Our vision of a circular economycircular economyA systems solution framework that tackles global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution. It is based on three principles, driven by design: eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials (at their highest value), and regenerate nature. — in which products are used more, made to be made again, and made from safe and recycled or renewable inputs — is an opportunity for fashion businesses to build economic resilience.
Each year millions of tonnes of clothes are produced, worn, and thrown away. Every second, the equivalent of a rubbish truckload of clothes is burnt or buried in landfill. This approach is not only environmentally unstable, it’s economically fragile. Every discarded garment represents financial value lost to both producer and customer.
For an industry brimming with creativity and innovation, the circular economy offers a new approach for the future of fashion and textiles. Our Fashion Mission is focussed on tackling the barriers to circular economy implementation at scale. Through our work to date we have identified systemic barriers that cannot be overcome through individual action. Our work prioritises finding solutions that:
Products must be designed to last longer, be repaired, and be remade. Business models must keep products in use through resale, rental, repairrepairOperation by which a faulty or broken product or component is returned back to a usable state to fulfil its intended use., and remaking services. And infrastructure must enable collection, sorting, and material recovery at scale.
Achieving a circular economy can have huge benefits. Fashion businesses can reduce their exposure to raw material supply disruptions and price volatility in a rapidly shifting geopolitical context. There are also wider economic benefits.
For instance, in the first year of the Foundation’s demonstration project, The Fashion ReModel, participating brands are already demonstrating they can create value for customers while building business resilience and delivering climate mitigation benefits.
Explore The Fashion ReModel
The Fashion ReModel is designed to demonstrate that circular business models can scale by getting to the heart of a business — its revenue.
The project, working with leading brands, shows we can make the economics work today, while targeting key intervention points to improve commercial viability in the future.
Apply to join our Fashion Network
Join us to help solve systemic barriers and transform the fashion industry from a linear system of overproduction and waste into a circular system of value and resilience.
