Spotlight: Circular Fashion
What is Circular Fashion?
Circular fashion is a system where our clothing and personal belongings are produced through a more considered model: where the production of an item and the end of its life are equally as important. This system considers materials and production thoughtfully, emphasizing the value of utilizing a product right to the end, then going one step further and repurposing it into something else. The focus is on the longevity and life cycle of our possessions, including designing out waste and pollution. Essentially, the “circular” comes as a response to previous economic and societal models that have been “linear” to date, and harmful on the planet along the way (Hill 2022).
Key Actions Consumers Can Take:
- Know more about the brands you from
- Support more sustainable and ethical fashion brands
- Live by the five r’s of fashion: reduce, rewear, recycle, repair, resell.
- Buy less and when you do, buy from better brands
- Flip items in your wardrobe before buying new
- Shop second-hand when possible
- Consider renting for your next event
- Host and attend clothes swaps
- Take good care of the clothes you already have
- Question “What are the alternatives?” before throwing away used clothing
- Utilise in store recycling programs
- Choose more sustainable materials when purchasing new clothing
- Talk to people about the benefits of circular fashion
- Learn the impact your clothing has on the planet and the importance of where your clothes are made, who made them, and what they are made of
- Make a commitment to not buy brands who don’t strive to sit within the circular model
Read more in the article "What Is Circular Fashion?" by Madeleine Hill
Circular Fashion Companies
- A.BCH"A.BCH is a circular fashion label offering a simple solution to a complex problem. The fashion industry is a major contributor to global air and water pollution, obscene wastage, human and animal exploitation – and that’s just the tip of the unethical iceberg. A.BCH is working to a circular economy standard, though the industry has a lot of catching up to do."
- EtikoEtiko is an Australian designer of organic, eco-friendly, and fair trade clothing and shoes. The brand constantly sets the bar for upholding and campaigning the human rights of people working in traditionally exploitative industry supply chains. Etiko offers a "Take Back program" for its footwear.
- Knickey"Knickey was founded as a sustainable brand from the start - seeking out the most environmentally responsible processes, low-impact fabrics and ethical manufacturing - and we're always ready to do more."
- MUD Jeans"MUD Jeans has become an exemplary circular fashion company, one of the world’s first B Corps, pioneering the Lease a jeans model since 2013 and consistently putting the circular economy principles into practice."
- Outerknown"1818 pieces of Outerknown clothing have been kept out of the landfill and in the loop through Outerworn—our resell platform for pre-loved styles."
- The R Collective"The R Collective is a social impact business in London and Hong Kong, born in 2017, to end fashion waste by rescuing, reusing and recycling fashion waste. We create responsible products and clothing with a conscience."
- ThélaThéla handcrafts with discarded plastic to make premium, everyday products. They have a circular and zero-waste approach, and are transparent.
Books
Circular Fashion by
Creating sustainable fashion has never been more important. Circular Fashion provides an accessible, practical, and holistic approach to this key topic for anyone studying fashion or who just loves clothes and wants to make better choices. This introductory text to sustainability in fashion includes best practice case studies and profiles of companies such as Patagonia, Veja, Christopher Raeburn, and Stella McCartney. It begins with an overview of the fashion business, tackling the issues of the linear production model of make, use, dispose, before exploring the idea of the circular supply chain across all areas of the industry. Circular Fashion is the must-have book for students, creatives and anyone passionate about sustainability and fashion. "A marvelous book that hits the target exactly. It is written in a clear and organized manner. It covers the history of materials in a storytelling manner that keeps the reader interest. It is a broad-based explanation in a nutshell of the whole move to Circularity." Caroline Daniels, Babson College "This book matches what we cover in class and provides another perspective." Melinda Adam, University of the Incarnate Word
Call Number: HD9940.A2 B58 2021ISBN: 9781786278876Publication Date: 2021-04-20
Recycling from Waste in Fashion and Textiles by
The alarming level of greenhouse gases in the environment, fast depleting natural resources and the increasing level of industrial effluents, have made every single manufacturing activity come under the scrutiny of sustainability. When all kinds of waste such as clothes, furniture, carpets, televisions, shoes, paper, food wastes etc. end up in the landfill, only a few of them are naturally decomposed and thus a large majority remains as non-biodegradable. It is for this reason, efforts are concentrated to reduce the burden on earth by this waste, and as far as used textile products are concerned, there are now attempts to recycle or up-cycle. This book addresses the role of sustainability by using textile waste in fashion and textiles with respect to manufacturing, materials, as well as the economic and business challenges and opportunities it poses. This wide-ranging book comprises 19 chapters on the various topics including: Solutions for sustainable fashion and textile industry; Agro and bio waste in the fashion industry; Innovating fashion brands by using textile waste; Waste in handloom textiles; Business paradigm shifting: 21st century fashion from recycling and upcycling; Utilization of natural waste for sustainable textile coloration; Circular economy in fashion and textile from waste; Future pathways of waste utilization for fashion; Sustainable encapsulation of natural dyes from Plant waste for textiles; and Agro-waste applications for bio-remediation of textile effluent.
Call Number: E-BookISBN: 9781119620525Publication Date: 2020-07-15
Sustainable Fashion in a Circular Economy by
This book provides information in relation to levels of circularity within the fashion industry. Areas examined include waste, consumption slow down, new design understanding and new business strategies.
Call Number: TT515 .S878 2018ISBN: 9789526000893Publication Date: 2018
Articles
- Adoption of Circular Business Model to Foster Sustainability in the Indian Fashion Industry by Fauzia Jama and Vibha Kapoor Today's global fashion industry is grappling with an exceedingly complex issue of sustainability as it roughly contributes 10% towards the global carbon emissions and 20% of wastewater. The study reveals that the remarkable growth of fast fashion in contemporary times has been continuously responsible for generating excessive volumes of textile waste, evident from the fact that 85% of all textiles are eventually dumped each year. Economic growth, consumption, and globalization can all be vital contributions to the reliance on the linear economy model. The paper primarily focuses on analyzing the key issues that hinder the Indian fashion industry's long-term sustainability. The conceptual foundation of a circular economy rests on the assumption that the earth is a circular or closed system with limited assimilative capacity. The paper reviews the literature on circular economy and circular fashion to understand how a business model develops using circularity and circular fashion. Finally, the paper explores and analyzes the role, key constraints and feasibility of the circular business model in fostering sustainability in the Indian fashion industry.
- Building a New Mind Set in Tomorrow Fashion Development through Circular Strategy Models in the Framework of Waste Management by Iliana Papamichael, Georgia Chatziparaskeva, Jose Navarro Pedreño, Irene Voukkali, María Belén Almendro Candel and Antonis A. Energy, food, and clothing are the three main components of humanity. Each one individually and all together contribute to climate change and CO2 emissions, to the consumption of natural resources, as well as influencing social attitude and behaviour. The global trends of the fashion industry are projected to expand in value from $1.5 trillion in 2020 to about $2.25 trillion by 2025, presenting that the fashion request is on continual growth. As natural resources (e.g., water) to produce clothes and shoes are limited nowadays, more resource-efficient production pathways must be identified; moreover, natural materials must replace plastic fibres, natural colours must replace synthetic ones, and ‘buy-and throw-way philosophy’ must turn into ‘buy-less-and-these-are-needed’ as so to reduce the environmental footprint of the fashion sector. This work emphasized the necessity of developing a new business circular model for the fashion industry with the potential of providing plethora of economic opportunities in the framework of waste management. Clear vision and new strategy development in the fashion sector is proposed, including the involvement of customers, businesses and policy makers, driven by the promotion of circular economy through knowledge exchange, education as well as regulatory relief measures for a synergic transition towards the circularity of the fashion industry.
- Fashion Industry and Sustainability: A Circular Economy Approach by Y. Hemantha Circular fashion approach plays a significant role in fashion and textile manufacturing, which global fashion houses have adopted to be sustainable in future. This study addresses the conceptual contours for understanding circular fashion by presenting an extensive literature review on the same. The study presents the benefits of circular fashion and the detrimental effects of linear economy on biosphere, and recommends shifting to circular economy. Further, the paper traces the developments in circular fashion in terms of redesigning recycling system, sourcing, chemical recycling, etc.
- Integrating LCA and Blockchain Technology to Promote Circular Fashion – A Case Study of Leather Handbags by Melinda Shou and Teresa Domenech The textile sector accounts for the fourth-highest usage of primary raw materials and water (after food, housing, and transport), the second-highest usage of land, and the fifth highest Green House Gases (GHG) emissions (EEA, 2017). While Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been widely used to assess the environmental impact of fashion, most studies are constrained by the lack of reliable data. Blockchain technology may enable better traceability by making origin and journey more transparent. The potential to integrate LCA and blockchain has been discussed in other sectors, but specific protocols in the fashion sector are largely missing. This study aims to address this by a) exploring the use of LCA to measure the impact reduction potential of circular strategies and b) proposing a protocol for the integration of LCA and BC to accurately assess circular practices. Using leather handbags as a case study, an LCA study is conducted comparing two circular scenarios against a baseline to quantify potential benefits from circular strategies. Subsequently, it builds a blockchain-based LCA framework to unleash circularity opportunities through enhanced traceability and data sharing. Results point to substantial environmental benefits from the circular strategies, for example, circular scenario 2 (reuse markets/second-hand leather bag) was estimated to cause between 34.8% and 53.8% lower impacts while circular scenario 1 (leather alternative) contributed to impact reduction of more than 35% of the impacts in most impact categories (10 out of 18). The results also highlight the contribution of blockchain technology to enable traceability and reliable data for identification of environmental hotspots and accurate quantification of circular potential.
- Kintsugi Philosophy in Clothing Design for a More Circular Fashion by Diana Pereira and Ana Cristina Broega The Fashion industry is contributed increasingly for the high levels of disposal of textile materials. The liners systems of fashion production raise serious ecological problems; the solution involves the adoption of design principles supported by the concept of Cradle-to-Cradle concept, which defends circular systems that aim to increase the life cycle of products and materials. Thus, the objective of the project is to create sustainable solutions to post-consumer textiles disposal problems according to the kintsugi philosophy and within the scope of the circular economy concept. To uphold this, fashion clothing textile reuse techniques were developed. For this, the methodology of the Design Thinking – Evolution 6 was used, supported by an exploratory study of the disposable habits of the potential target audience. A market study was created using a questionnaire to elaborate on clothing disposal habits. As a source of inspiration, the Kintsugi philosophy was used, and studies of artisanal techniques and upcycling were used to develop clothing mini-collection and made. A video was made to publicize the collection.