Eight leading brands have joined a new collaborative initiative led by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMA) which aims at scaling business models that do not rely on selling new items.
- Arc'teryx, Arket, COS, H&M Group, Primark, Reformation, Weekday and Zalando were the first set of brands to join the Fashion ReModel initiative which was launched 21 May at the Global Fashion Summit in Copenhagen.
- Fashion ReModel builds on the success of the EMA’s earlier initiative, the Jeans Redesign project (2019–23), which demonstrated how jeans can be designed and made for a circular economy.
- The EMA is advocating for more practices like rental, resale, repair and remaking to help to keep products in use. According to recent EMA research, these could make up 23% of the global fashion market by 2030, representing a $700 billion opportunity to transform the future of fashion.
THE AIMS AND FOCUS: The Fashion ReModel initiative aims to identify solutions and overcome challenges to begin decoupling revenue from the production of new garments, advancing the long-term journey to make a circular economy for fashion a reality.
- It focuses on scaling circular business models such as rental, resale, repair and remaking, which are designed to keep products in use. These models have the potential to decouple revenue streams from production and resource use, offering a significant opportunity for new and better growth in the fashion industry.
- Fashion ReModel highlights the multiple opportunities for organisations to generate revenue through keeping products in use, including direct revenue from the four main circular business models, income from circular business model providers or platforms, training or education to empower customers with skills to keep fashion products in use, and coupling circular product design with circular business model offerings.
THE DRIVERS: The Fashion ReModel initiative identifies three key drivers to achieve the vision of a circular economy for fashion: product design, circular business models and infrastructure.
- By designing products fit for a circular economy, clothes can be used more, made to be made again, and made from safe, recycled, or renewable inputs.
- Circular business models, such as rental, repair, resale, and remaking, decouple revenue from the production of new clothes and provide opportunities to keep products in use.
- Infrastructure needs to operate as a diverse and highly connected network between all actors in the fashion system to keep products and materials at their highest value.
WHAT THEY SAID:
Through their participation in the Fashion ReModel, this group of organisations are taking the next step on the road towards a circular economy for fashion. In order to challenge conventional linear models and create a new normal, brands must decouple revenue from production by accelerating efforts to redesign the products of the future, as well as rethinking the services and business models which deliver them to customers and keep them in use.
— Jules Lennon
Fashion Lead
Ellen MacArthur Foundation
We're looking forward to working with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation again. The Jeans Redesign pushed us to explore what circular design could mean for our product assortment and now The Fashion ReModel is set to do the same with circular business models. The opportunity presented by decoupling the fashion industry's growth from resource use is huge and this project can help us better understand how to further scale these models.
— Leyla Ertur
Head of Sustainability
H&M Group
Arc’teryx is committed to a circular future, building products to last and equipping our guests with the tools and education to keep their gear in play. We’re excited to be one of the first participants to join the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s demonstration project, The Fashion ReModel, to reimagine circularity for the outdoor industry, rethinking the way we approach design and waste to build a future in which everything we create can be given a second life.
— Dominique Showers
Vice-President, ReBIRD
Arc’teryx
