A new guide—Refashioning: Accelerating Circular Product Design at Scale— outlines steps for fashion businesses to transition from linear to circular design, focusing on maximising the lifespan of products and materials.
- Challenging traditional design thinking with practical steps to enable change, Refashioning provides a systematic and methodological approach to implementing circular clothing design in a way that all organisations can implement, regardless of their size.
THE REFASHIONING CIRCULAR DESIGN METHOD: A thorough and tested approach to circular design, the Refashioning Circular Design Method highlights all steps that a designer must take to design for circularity, covering product purpose, material strategies, use and end of life planning plus documentation and implementation.
- At the heart of the Refashioning method are the three principles of circular fashion design: using safe, recyclable or renewable inputs; products are used more; and are made to be made again. To achieve this, a circular designer will need to stretch beyond the current processes of design.
- Circular design using the Refashioning method is an iterative process. It’s expected that designers continuously learn from and improve upon previous design iterations to create increasingly circular products and solutions over time.
- To achieve full circularity, circular design processes must extend beyond material selection to cover the entire lifecycle of a product and the system it cycles within.
CIRCULAR CLOTHING DESIGN: For circular clothing design, the lifecycle stages are raw materials, manufacturing, cycles of use, and decommissioning and end of life. Design that engages with all four stages is called Lifecycle Design where a circular designer ensures each stage is planned for, documented and communicated.
- The integrity of Lifecycle Design is maintained through excellent and detailed record keeping and communications with internal and external partners and stakeholders. This requires circular designers to look beyond the point of sale and become excellent multi-stakeholder communicators across a product’s entire value chain.
- Refashioning is an ambitious invitation for designers to lead the charge in circular economy transformation, while recognising the need for greater systems change. Design teams can control the circular attributes of a garment and businesses can leverage communications to educate consumers.
- However, broader systems-wide transformation of the entire value chain, as well as the principles and procedures which regulate how the system operates will be critical to enable full circularity for fashion and clothing.
Systemic challenges for transformation include:
- recycling infrastructure, including recycling facilities, collection and sorting operations;
- circular material sourcing;
- citizen behaviour around consumption, particularly regarding use and care practices; and
- regulation for circular solutions.
Refashioning calls for FURTHER COLLABORATIVE ACTION on each of these areas so as to embed and accelerate circularity at scale. Systems-transformation actions include:
- Working with other designers and businesses to share solutions, e.g., sourcing materials collaboratively.
- Engaging in multi-stakeholder forums (to share, learn and advocate).
- Educating customers on their role in circularity.
- Investing in circular raw materials and zero waste manufacturing systems.
- Pushing for regulatory change, including industry standards.
- Extended Producer Responsibility Schemes such as Seamless in Australia.
- Establish or fund circular businesses models, such as rental, repair, donations and re-styling to meet circularity ambitions, particularly around extending cycles of use.
THE TEAM & FUNDING: Refashioning (2023-2025) was supported by the Victorian Government’s Circular Economy Innovation Fund as part of the Circular Economy Business Innovation Centre (CEBIC).
- Funded by Sustainability Victoria, the guide’s production was a collaboration between RMIT, Country Road Group brands and two independent partners, circular design expert Courtney Holm and sustainability expert Julie Boulton.
- For over a year, the team worked with eight product and design teams across four brands within the Country Road Group—Country Road, Trenery, Witchery and Politix—to test and refine the guides in a commercial context.
THE CONTEXT: The dominant production and consumption method used by most brands today creates clothing for a linear economy – a system of take, make and waste.
- To switch to a circular method that allows materials to be recycled, critical aspects such as material choices, product purpose and use, durability, and end-of-life options need to be considered early in the design process.
WHAT THEY SAID:
Based on extensive research with the industry, we’ve created practical steps businesses can take to improve the circularity of their outputs. Although other circular design guides are available,Refashioning is unique in providing a systematic methodology that enables designers to both slow the flow and close the loop. The guide challenged traditional design thinking with practical steps to enable change. This guide provides a systematic and methodological approach to implementing circular clothing design in a way that all organisations can implement, regardless of their size.
— Professor Alice Payne (Project lead)
Dean, School of Fashion and Textiles
RMIT
The research connected industry, government, and academia to address textile waste. It’s an example of how effective cross-sector collaboration can generate impactful results in the transition to a circular economy. By fostering partnerships across sectors, Sustainability Victoria enables meaningful change that moves beyond theory and into real, actionable solutions.
— Matt Genever
Chief Executive Officer
Sustainability Victoria
Working on the guide’s creation has started the Group on a journey towards having a common understanding and approach to circular design across its brands. This project delivered a clear vision for circular design, and leveraged the expertise in the industry, academia and our own business. The opportunity to help create guidelines based on real life feedback and challenges and not just academic theory was a key driver for our involvement, alongside our commitment to building a better future.
— Erika Martin
Head of Sustainability
Country Road Group
