Circular Fashion
What is Circular Fashion?
At ECOLOOKBOOK we believe that we’re responsible for what we choose to wear and we want to support a fashion system where our clothes don’t end up as waste. Circularity means designing a product with its full lifecycle in mind, keeping the garment in use, circulating responsibly and effectively in society for as long as possible until it can either safely biodegrade or compost or be recycled at the end of its life. A circular design approach minimises environmental impact and takes in the entire process from designing to sourcing to production, creating a waste free, landfill free fashion system.
What Circular design is:
- Use mono materials where possible and ensure that products made from multiple materials can be easily disassembled to aid product recyclability
- Assess what substances and materials of concern are used in production that cause pollution or prevent recycling and work with suppliers to remove them
- Consider how other waste in the supply chain from garment off cuts to packaging can be captured and then reused or recycled through internal processes, or working with partner organisations
- Keep garments in use and reuse as long as possible through developing or participating in collection schemes and supporting the development of technologies to recycle used textiles back to ‘good as new’ raw materials.
What Circular fashion is not:
According to Common Objective, “as circularity has gained traction within the industry so too has confusion about what it is. Items that are upcycled or made from recycled materials or even just recyclable are being marketed as ‘circular fashion’.
“Circularity is not just about material recovery. Nor is it just about resale or rental or designing for longevity. It is about bringing all of those things and more together. The circular fashion economy is a system. While recycling plants, take-back schemes, upcycled clothing, pollution free dye houses and more all play a part they are not in and of themselves circular, however they are each enablers for a circular fashion economy.
“However they may also be part of the dominant linear model (the purchaser of that second hand dress may just throw it away when they are done with it, the rented item once it is worn out may not be able to easily be recycled and put to different use but may end up in landfill and so on.)”
ECOLOOKBOOK's Check Marks for Sustainability
✓ Giving Back