Some of the biggest names in fashion are joining forces with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to create a thriving industry based on the principles of a circular economy.
Make Fashion Circular builds on the vision outlined in the Foundation’s 2017 report A New Textiles Economy: Redesigning fashion’s future. Today Dame Ellen MacArthur announces the industry leaders who are joining forces to Make Fashion Circular, and leads a panel discussing the topic at the Copenhagen Fashion Summit.
As core partners of Make Fashion Circular, Burberry Group plc, Gap Inc., H&M, HSBC, NIKE, Inc., and Stella McCartney, will work with the Foundation to radically redesign the fashion industry. Together they will deliver the solutions needed to meet the changing demands and expectations of society, and address the issues that have seen the fashion industry become one of the most polluting and wasteful operating today. The project has been made possible with the support of C&A Foundation and Walmart Foundation.
A further 16 participants including city authorities, fashion producers, designers, and brands have joined the initiative to help drive momentum towards the vision for a circular economy for fashion.
Participants of the Make Fashion Circular initiative will unite behind three key principles to create a system that delivers benefits for citizens, the environment, and businesses:
- Business models that keep clothes in use
- Materials that are renewable and safe
- Solutions that turn used clothes into new clothes.
By working towards this bold new vision, the fashion industry can capture USD 460 billion currently lost due to the underutilisation of clothes. An additional USD 100 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. 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.
