Fashion made more circular by industry leaders

As core partners of Make Fashion Circular, Burberry, Gap, H&M, NIKE and Stella McCartney, will work with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to redesign and deliver the solutions needed to meet the changing demands and expectations of society in the fashion industry.

Made possible by C&A Foundation and Walmart Foundation, the initiative will develop solutions to some of the biggest issues faced by the fashion industry.

A further 16 stakeholders have joined the initiative as participants, including DuPont Biomaterials, London Waste and Recycling Board, Solvay and Tintex Textiles.

Participants of the Make Fashion Circular initiative will portray three principles to create a system, including business models that keep clothes in use, materials that are renewable and safe and solutions that turn used clothes into new clothes.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation says, by working towards this bold new vision, the fashion industry can capture $460 billion (approx.£344 billion) currently lost due to the underutilisation of clothes and an additional $100 billion (approx. £74.9 billion) from clothing that could be used, but is currently lost to landfill and incineration, can also be captured.

“For the fashion industry to thrive in the future we must replace the take-make-dispose model, which is worn out. We need a circular economy for fashion in which clothes are kept at their highest value and designed from the outset to never end up as waste,” said Ellen MacArthur, founder of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

“By joining forces to Make Fashion Circular we can harness the creativity and innovation that is at the heart of this USD 1.3 trillion industry to create a system that delivers benefits for everyone.”