Since joining the U.K. charity Ellen MacArthur Foundation in 2015, Laura Balmond has been exploring how the industry can engage in circular fashion models. The circular fashion economy, a regenerative system that considers sourcing and end of life in the design stage, is predicted to grow from its current market size of $3 trillion to $5 trillion with the help of digital technology platforms.
“In fashion, we have set a vision where we want to see clothes being used more and made from safe, recycled and renewable inputs. But we found that a lot of the organisations we were working with were struggling to know where to get started on that journey toward achieving that vision,” she said. This understanding led to Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s launch of the #WearNext campaign that raised awareness on take-back programs in New York. That led to clothing collection volumes increasing by an average of 15% across seven drop-off locations in 2019.
Balmond was also behind the Jeans Redesign Project, where the foundation worked with 80 experts from across the denim industry to define specific guidelines for designing a pair of jeans using circular economy principles. “In our conversations, we looked at whether we could take an iconic product, like a pair of jeans, and actually apply the principles of a circular economy to it,” she said. By May 2021, over 70 brands, retailers, fabric mills and manufacturers had collectively put on the market over half a million pairs of jeans meeting minimum requirements on criteria including recyclability. Brands included Banana Republic, Chloé, Ganni and Gap.
Such initiatives are needed now, more than ever, said Balmond. “We’re making more and more, and we’re actually using it less,” she said, of apparel. “So we’re even speeding up that process of clothing ending up in a landfill or incineration.”
However, Balmond believes that circular fashion has the potential to be widely adopted. With this in mind, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation launched in December 2021 the “Circular Design for Fashion” book. It includes insights from executives at companies including Gabriela Hearst, Marine Serre, Vivienne Westwood and Kering on how circular design thinking can be applied by creatives and businesses to create a new norm.
