How to Make Fashion Sustainable: A New Approach

So, what happened in sustainable fashion this week? A few highlights: 𝗩𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗯𝗼𝗻 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁𝘀. The resale platform launched carbon credits from avoided emissions through secondhand purchases, developed with Inuk and under public consultation, sparking debate on credibility and avoided vs. removal offsets. Coperni Paris 𝗱𝗿𝗼𝗽𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗶𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘄𝗲𝗮𝗿. The Paris label introduced sportswear infused with probiotics, designed to activate on skin contact. Stella McCartney 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 “𝗙𝗲𝘃𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀.” Her Paris Fashion Week show debuted a feather alternative made from dyed grass blades, hand-stitched with Chanakya International, alongside regenerative cotton and plant-based leather. H&M Foundation 𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 “𝗙𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲.” The initiative aims to reimagine garment factories through digitalization, automation, and worker-centric design to balance productivity and sustainability. Patrick McDowell 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 Circ®. The London designer debuted a capsule collection featuring Circ’s recycled fibers, spotlighting circular textile innovation in high fashion. Rebalance Vintage 𝗱𝗲𝗯𝘂𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗮 𝗸𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗮𝗿. The new label launched its first knitwear piece, made with traceable alpaca yarn from smallholder farmers in Peru and crafted in a family-run workshop. Fashion for Good 𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 “𝗕𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱𝟱𝟬 𝗗𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗺.” The project brings together brands, mills, and farmers to scale hemp denim with more than 50% hemp content, reducing water and chemical use compared to conventional cotton. 𝗘𝗨 𝗲𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗱𝗿𝗼𝗽. The European Environment Agency reported that EU greenhouse gas emissions fell 37% between 1990 and 2023, keeping on track toward a 55% cut by 2030. 👇 What stood out to you this week? Anything you’d add? More stories and links in the comments.

This week's sustainable fashion industry good news. 🟢 A new Vestiaire Collective and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report, ‘Resale’s Next Chapter: How Fashion and Luxury Brands Can Win in the Secondhand Market’ reveals the second-hand market is growing three times faster than new retail and is projected to reach almost $360 billion by 2030, up from $220 billion today. 🟢 The Textile Exchange conference highlighted the need for supply chain collaboration through interdependent partnerships and context-specific solutions, moving beyond transactional relationships and one-size-fits-all approaches. 🟢The British Fashion Council, in partnership with The Circular Fashion Innovation Network, and UK Fashion and Textile Association (UKFT) has released a new report revealing that sustainable fashion is attracting billions in investment. There are 650+ sustainable material innovations now available (400% since 2017) and next-generation materials have raised over $3 billion since 2014. 🟢 Twelve textile companies - forming the European Circular Textile Coalition- are urging the EU to match its regulatory ambition with investment in circular infrastructure to turn post-consumer textile waste into a driver of green jobs, innovation and competitiveness. 🟢For the first time, H&M Group will incorporate Circ®’s recycled fibres from polycotton textile waste into its garments. The first products debut in Fall 2025, with a womenswear v-neck fleece sweatshirt made with Circ® Polyester and expands in Spring 2026 with menswear denim crafted with TENCEL™ | Circ® with REFIBRA™ Technology. 🟢In Lisbon, Eco Age partnered with TextileGenesis, Haelixa, EON, and Bureau Veritas Group to host a networking event after Day Two of Textile Exchange Conference. Uniting leaders and innovators who each carry unique perspectives and expertise to drive our industry forward. #GoodNews #SustainableFashion #Secondhand #Innovation #EcoAge

🌿 The Fashion Economist: Sustainable Brand Tracker In today’s fashion landscape, sustainability has evolved from a talking point into a key indicator of growth and innovation. At The Fashion Economist, I’ve launched the Sustainable Brand Tracker, a growing hub that spotlights the innovators redefining how fashion is designed, produced, and consumed. From regenerative agriculture to circular business models and traceable supply chains, the tracker highlights the strategies shaping a more resilient and responsible industry. It’s about redefining value in fashion, where creativity, responsibility, and economics align to build the industry’s next chapter. The page is live and expanding weekly with brands, insights, and tools that reflect where the industry is headed next. ✨ Explore the tracker: https://lnkd.in/g75JD-sQ #TheFashionEconomist #SustainableFashion #CircularEconomy #FashionInnovation #ConsciousStyle #RegenerativeDesign

The Fashion CEO Agenda 2025 is out. The Global Fashion Agenda has released the latest edition of the Fashion CEO Agenda, a concise, strategic checklist developed for executives of fashion brands and retailers. This agenda is critical, as ignoring sustainability is not a cost-saving strategy - it is a risk multiplier. D̳r̳i̳v̳i̳n̳g̳ ̳s̳o̳c̳i̳a̳l̳ ̳p̳r̳o̳g̳r̳e̳s̳s̳ →The agenda prioritises Better Wage Systems and Respectful and Secure Work Environments. →The fashion industry employs over 430 million people globally. →Women comprise approximately 80% of the apparel workforce. →Globally, wage disparities remain severe for garment workers; for instance, men in Bangladesh can earn up to 30% more than women for similar work. →The global gender pay gap is slowly narrowing, but full parity is still projected to take 123 years based on the collective speed of progress since 2006. A̳d̳d̳r̳e̳s̳s̳i̳n̳g̳ ̳e̳n̳v̳i̳r̳o̳n̳m̳e̳n̳t̳a̳l̳ ̳c̳r̳i̳s̳i̳s̳ →The agenda tackles Resource Stewardship and Smart Material Choices3. →The fashion industry is responsible for up to 10% of global carbon emissions - more than international flights and maritime shipping combined. →The sector consumes massive amounts of water, estimated at 215 trillion litres annually. →Synthetic fabrics release 500,000 tons of microplastics into the ocean every year. →Today, only 8% of textile fibers were made from recycled sources in 2023. S̳c̳a̳l̳i̳n̳g̳ ̳c̳i̳r̳c̳u̳l̳a̳r̳i̳t̳y̳ →Focusing on Circular Systems offers a path to decouple growth from finite resource use. →Every year, 92 million tonnes of textile waste is produced globally, with the equivalent of one garbage truck's worth of clothing sent to landfill every second. →Less than 1% of all textiles worldwide are recycled into new products. The global circular fashion market is expected to see substantial growth, with revenue estimated at $6.94 billion in 2025. →Consumer demand is rising, with over 60% of Gen Z consumers preferring secondhand or circular options over new retail. →Systemic transformation demands bold, courageous leadership that leverages the Priority Accelerators: Innovation, Capital, Courage, Incentives, and Regulation. This document is a vital tool for executives looking to embed sustainability at the core of their business and move the needle toward a net-positive fashion industry. Have a read! #fashionceoagenda #globalfashionagenda #sustainability #fashionindustry #netpositivefashion #corporateresponsibility

I mapped Europe's sustainable fashion scene, then you showed me how much I'd missed. Europe's Green Deal sets 2050 as the deadline for climate neutrality, with fashion earmarked for circular transformation. These brands aren't waiting. They're building that future today: • Michal Freitag: converts truck tarps into waterproof bags that last decades. • LIVING CRAFTS: creates GOTS-certified German organics with fair trade values.  • HNST: crafts timeless pieces from deadstock and recycled materials.  • Nudie Jeans: offers a lifetime repair model. Buy once, mend forever.  • shakkei.fashion: zero-waste Japanese techniques + Austrian production. • Swedish Stockings: turns fishing nets and nylon into durable tights.  • ZOURI SHOES: converts Portuguese ocean plastic into vegan footwear. • Globe Hope Oy: reimagines Finnish military surplus as coveted fashion.  • Neelo Resort : combines European-made luxury with resort-inspired design.  • Thinking MU : combines ethical cotton with transparent sourcing practices.  UNWONTED: turns alpaca waste into circular bedding.  Stella Jean: fuses Italian tailoring with ethically-sourced African prints. ISTO...: champions Portuguese slow fashion using local resources.  Grüne Erde GmbH: champions Austrian sustainable clothing and homewares. Colorful Standard: builds GOTS-certified basics designed for longevity.   VAUDE: upholds Green Shape standards for German outdoor gear. People Tree: uses fair trade organic cotton. VEJA: combines sustainable materials with ethical Brazilian production. Kuyichi Pure Goods: specializes in circular organic denim. Elementy: creates minimalist pieces using eco-friendly materials.  Newless: upcycles existing wardrobes into reimagined UK fashion. Clean & Unique: makes supply chains ethical and transparent. Regenesi: turns industrial waste into fashion and design products. Europe's sustainable fashion market is worth €2.4 billion and is growing at over 20% annually. With EU laws banning textile destruction from 2026, these are the brands we should be supporting now. Which of these brands are in your closet? And which ones are you eyeing next? 𝘋𝘢𝘵𝘢 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘜 + 𝘌𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 + 𝘊𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵 𝘐𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 ✨ Follow for conscious fashion insights from CEE and beyond, with VOGUE CS perspectives.

Unwonted is on the map—literally. Thanks to Michaela Seewald for including us in this overview of sustainable European brands. Being featured alongside established sustainable companies reminds me why we started this: Poland has 6,000 alpacas producing 12+ tonnes of fleece annually, but most of it goes unused because small farms can't access processing at scale. From our shearing experience we know that the waste problem IS the welfare problem. When fleece has no value, farmers can't justify investing in quality animal care. We're changing that by aggregating small volumes into economical processing batches, creating a circular system where better animal welfare produces better fiber produces better income produces better welfare. Sustainability isn't just about the environment. It's about building economic models that make ethical practices profitable. That's the future we're building—one Polish alpaca farm at a time.

Eco-fashion leaders—designers, brands, and distributors! 🌍 How can a single fiber revolutionize the fashion industry toward a circular economy?  In our latest blog, we explore the mono-material revolution: the advantages of one-fiber fabrics like recycled polyester for easier recycling, waste reduction, and enhanced #ESG performance. From activewear to accessories, learn how our expertise transforms sustainable concepts into practical solutions.  Let's collaborate to build a more sustainable fashion landscape—tag a colleague who should read this!  Read the full post here: https://lnkd.in/gercrKVY #MonoMaterial #CircularFashion #SustainableTextiles #EcoInnovation #FashionSustainability #Fanterco #recycledpolyester #onefiberfabric

Fashion That Doesn’t Cost the Earth: Thoughts on a Changing Industry I just read a thoughtful piece in ELLE India about how designers and small labels in India are proving that style and sustainability can go hand-in-hand. It’s the kind of journalism that reminds us why the conversation about circular and pre-loved fashion matters right now. Here’s the reality we need to face and act on. The fashion system is still enormously wasteful and carbon-intensive: roughly one truckload of textiles is landfilled or burned every second, and the sector contributes around 8–10% of global greenhouse-gas emissions. Fast fashion’s business model (speed, volume, disposability) drives those outcomes, and it’s why circular solutions are no longer optional. 💫 Here’s what I think we should reflect on:- *️⃣Design for longevity and reuse: Make garments repairable, timeless and easy to recycle. Designing for multiple lives (repair → resale → recycling) protects value and reduces emissions and waste. *️⃣Policy and industry levers matter Recent EU moves to make producers financially responsible for collection, sorting and recycling (Extended Producer Responsibility) show how policy can change incentives across the supply chain and push fast-fashion players to internalise the true costs of their products. This is a big step toward a circular system. (European Parliament) *️⃣Consumer practices scale impact Thrifting, swapping, renting, repairing and choosing verified sustainable labels (or pre-loved items) are all practical ways consumers can reduce demand for disposable fashion. Small behaviour changes, when multiplied, change markets. At SustainZone we work with clients to quantify their product and supply-chain impacts and to design realistic pathways to more circular business models, from EPR preparedness to resale programs, to supply-chain traceability that supports true transparency. If you’re brand-building or advising retailers, now is the time to embed circular principles into product strategy, not as marketing, but as core business design. 🧥Sustainability in fashion isn’t about making everything “green” on paper, it’s about changing how we design, buy and value clothing so natural capital and human dignity are part of the balance sheet. If you’re a leader in fashion (or advising one), ask: how many lives will this garment have? If the answer is “one,” we’ve still got work to do. #SustainableFashion #CircularFashion #PreLovedFashion #EthicalFashion #SlowFashion #ResponsibleFashion #TextileWaste #ClimateAction #ConsciousConsumption #SustainZone

✨ A Landmark Week for Sustainable Denim! ✨ What an incredible week for the future of indigo and sustainable fashion! 🗞️ October 9th — TIME Magazine named Pili’s Eco-Indigo one of the Best Inventions of 2025, shining a global spotlight on our mission to decarbonize the color industry. ➡️This recognition is a proud moment for our team and our partner Citizens of Humanity Group. It shows how collaboration and innovation can set new ecological standards and help build a more sustainable future for fashion. 👖 October 14th — AGOLDE unveiled its Eco-Indigo collection at La Samaritaine Paris Pont-Neuf, surrounded by French influencers and denim lovers who share our belief that innovation and responsibility can coexist beautifully. ➡️With its new Eco-indigo collection, AGOLDE has shown that strong partnerships can turn a brand’s vision into thousands of pairs of jeans that beautifully embody responsible fashion. 🌍 October 15th — The Pili team joined Kingpins Show in Amsterdam, the leading global event for denim innovation. We were honored to take part in the panel “Dyeing for the Future” alongside inspiring peers committed to reducing the environmental footprint of indigo and the dyeing process. ➡️ A key takeaway: the textile industry must continue to innovate and stay ahead of upcoming legislation that will reshape how we produce and color our world. Momentum is building, partnerships are growing, a new responsible standard for denim is rising! #EcoIndigo #SustainableFashion #Innovation #FutureOfDenim #CleanColor #KingpinsShow #BestInventions2025