Circular Fashion is an application of circular economy to the fashion industry, where the life cycles of fashion products are extended. According to the definition of The European Parliament, this involves "sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible." Pioneering work and terminology on circular fashion, reached the mainstream through a 2017 report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation titled "A New Textile Economy: Redesigning Fashion's Future". So far, the EU has been the main proponent for developing frameworks around circular fashion on a policy level, such as the Circular Economy Action Plan, part of the European Commission's "EU strategy for sustainable and circular textiles," launched in March 2022. Circular Vision The vision of Circular Fashion is to apply the "cradle-to-cradle" model, where materials circulate throughout the lifecycle of a product to never become waste. This goal of circularity is named after the influential 2002 book, Cradle-to-Cradle by German chemist Michael Braungart and US architect William McDonough. Obstacles to Circular Fashion Applying circular models to the fashion industry faces great challenges: Firstly, fashion is, per definition, associated with the arrival of something new. Even if the expression is that a style "is back", this style is accessed to consumers by acquiring a new item. Secondly, the modes of production across the sector have, since early industrialism, been shaped by mass-production and the success of ready-to-wear, thus making the fashion item the primary economic vector of transaction. The success of the this model under economic globalization has impeded new perspectives to emerge. Thirdly, the industry is optimized to process virgin materials, thus requiring extraction of new materials to produce new items. Even if the sector of reprocessing used materials is growing rapidly, the structure of textile fibers require infusion of new materials to secure the strength of the recycled fibers. Circular Fashion and Greenwashing Many fashion companies are greenwashing their claims of circularity. Most "recycling" initiatives amongst fashion brands means excess used goods are shipped to developing countries, dumped or incinerated. Examples of Circular Fashion So far most innovation in circular fashion occurs in the mechanical or chemical textile industries, such as Lenzing, Renewcell, Evrnu, Spinnova, or Worn Again. References Further reading https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230227-how-to-recycle-your-clothes