Leading fashion brands including Primark and H&M are collaborating in a new initiative to promote circular business models within the fashion industry.
Spearheaded by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which advocates for a more circular economy, this project aims to find solutions that decouple revenue from the unsustainable production of new garments.
Fast fashion brands like Primark and H&M have faced criticism for environmentally damaging practices, greenwashing, and labor abuses in their supply chains. The prevalent ‘take-make-waste’ model results in millions of tons of clothing being produced and discarded annually, with truckloads ending up in landfills or being incinerated every second.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is promoting practices such as rental, resale, repair, and remaking to extend the lifecycle of products. Recent research by the foundation estimates that such practices could account for 23 per cent of the global fashion market by 2030, representing a $700 billion opportunity to transform the industry's future.
Other early participants in the Fashion ReModel initiative, launched at the Global Fashion Summit in Copenhagen, include Arc’teryx, Arket, Cos, Reformation, and Weekday. The foundation believes that the shared learnings and experiences among these brands will help pave the way toward a more sustainable fashion industry.
This new initiative builds on the foundation’s previous ‘Jeans Redesign’ project, which, between 2019 and 2023, challenged participants to reimagine jeans to fit a circular economy.
