The fashion industry needs to move away from a ‘linear’ model towards a ‘circular’ one. In a ‘circular’ or ‘flow’ fashion economy, clothes, textiles, and fibres are kept at their highest value during use and re-enter the economy to avoid becoming waste.
To realise a circular fashion economy, there are certain systemic issues that need to be addressed. A trend is needed to move away from business models based on product sales at lowest price only to service models based on true pricing and performance. Furthermore, countries need to create and enforce governance and legislation geared towards circular fashion. In other words, a system which ensures transparency, taxes resources, externalities and energy more heavily and labour less, sets up minimum requirements for fashion products on the market and bans those that do not meet them.
To realise a circular fashion economy,
there are certain systemic issues that
need to be addressed. A trend is needed
to move away from business models
based on product sales at lowest price
only to service models based on true
pricing and performance. Furthermore,
countries need to create and enforce
governance and legislation geared
towards circular fashion. In other words,
a system which ensures transparency,
taxes resources, externalities and
energy more heavily and labour less,
sets up minimum requirements for
fashion products on the market and
bans those that do not meet them.
Governments have driven all major innovations, and only they can change legislation to
foster change. By combining policies for procurement, economic incentives and
regulation, governments can tilt the existing linear ’level’ playing field into a circular
one. But how do we ensure government action?
Advocacy is key to creating a new system of governance acting as a powerful lever in
driving change alongside proofs of concepts, pre-competitive collaboration and
convening, increasing and bundling demand, capacity building, raising worker and
community voice, and transparency and accountability.
According to Ecopreneur, a set of policy instruments to accelerate and mainstream a
circular fashion economy should be based on the following five pillars:
