What is Circular Fashion?

A circular fashion system is one where waste and pollution is eliminated, products and materials are kept in use longer through reuse and upcycling, and recycling of textiles is done at scale. Alternatively, the fabric mix is one that can be returned safely to the biosphere.

This involves changing all stages of design, production and consumption of a product.

The idea is to create and use things within planetary boundaries. The framework demands change in human action, which has been the main driver of global environmental change that we experience today.

How can we make fashion circular?

The style, durability and material selection of a garment must be taken into account during the concept & design stage. A product must be designed to ensure longevity and have either the potential to be recycled or regenerated.

The manufacturing and production practices have to be ethical and fair on the ecosystem. This means that air, water, soil, plants, animals and humans need to be taken into consideration.

Consumers must use an item for as long as possible and adapt to sustainable consumption practices like renting and buying second-hand clothing.

Collection and recycling of post-consumer textiles must be done extensively and in high volumes.

What is Linear Fashion?

Linear fashion follows a make-use-dispose model. It doesn’t take into account the product’s end of life-cycle and and over 70% of clothing ends up in landfills. The textiles are not eco-efficient or recyclable and even if they were, there is no practice to recycle of reuse them at scale.

While some brands have initiated the process of redesigning their product lifecycles, complexities around changing the linear model have slowed down the movement towards circularity. |Source: Global Fashion Agenda and Boston Consulting Group (2019). Pulse of the Fashion Industry 2019. |

Fashion is primarily produced in a linear system of “take, make, dispose”, with 73% of the world’s clothing eventually ending in landfills. If textile collection rates were tripled by 2030, it could be worth more than EUR 4 billion for the world economy. |Source: Global Fashion Agenda and Boston Consulting Group (2017). Pulse of the Fashion Industry 2017. |

Related reading: Circular Economy, Ellen MacArthur Foundation

For information about Fashion Consumption and Waste, click here.