The fashion industry has cut a sorry figure in the latest 2024 Circular Fashion Index (CFX) published by consultancy firm Kearney, with only 25 brands (out of 235) scoring 5 out of 10 or more on the CFX.
- The 235 fashion brands analysed this year achieved an average score of 3.20 out of 10—an increase of >0.2 points compared to 2023 results. This, the report said, was primarily driven by a slight improvement in primary market levers, while secondary levers remain flat.
- There has also been a gradual increase of about 0.3 points in the adoption of circular design principles, including the use of renewable materials driven by footwear and fashion brands—most notably luxury and mass market players—investing in primary market levers.
- Compared to the inaugural 2020 report, this year’s results show an average improvement of 1.2 points.
- The top 10 brands are: The North Face, Gucci, Levi’s, Lululemon, Madewell, OVS, Patagonia, Coach, Gant, and Lindex.
THE NEW INDEX: The fourth edition of The CFX is both expanded and evolved. The scope has been expanded by nearly 20% over last year.
- With the addition of Japan this year, the analysis now spans 18 countries and includes five key categories: fashion, sports, outdoor (previously analysed alongside the sports category), underwear and lingerie, and footwear.
- CFX 2024 has introduced a refined price segmentation for the fashion category—distinguishing between luxury, premium/affordable luxury, mass market, and fast fashion brands.
- The CFX score methodology for assessing a brand’s circularity efforts is based on seven critical dimensions. Brands’ circularity is evaluated from two perspectives: their impact on new product sales to consumers (primary market) and their impact on the secondary market, which includes used product sales and recycling.
- This year, the approach has expanded from focusing on recycled material share to including integration of circular design principles such as the balanced use of environmentally friendly materials and the avoidance of harmful chemicals.
THE SEVEN DIMENSIONS: The CFX measures fashion brands’ efforts to extend the lifecycle of their products and materials based on seven dimensions.
- Adoption of circular design principles, including employment of recycled or renewable fabrics.
- Availability of repair or maintenance service.
- Level of detail and accessibility of care instructions.
- Importance of circularity in brand communications.
- Breadth and depth of pre-owned garment assortment (second-hand sales).
- Breadth and depth of garment rental or leasing assortment (rental services).
- Availability of worn clothes drop-off for recycling (reusing returned clothes as raw material or for donating to charity).
