Leading fashion brands are collaborating with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to revolutionize the industry by promoting circular business models that separate revenue from production. 

A New Initiative, The Fashion Remodel

On May, at the Global Fashion Summit in Copenhagen, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation announced a new initiative, The Fashion ReModel, which brings together prominent fashion brands to explore ways to generate revenue without producing new garments.

Participants in this project include major brands like Arc’teryx, ARKET, COS, H&M Group, Primark, Reformation, WEEKDAY, and Zalando. The goal is to identify solutions and address challenges in reducing reliance on new garment production, moving towards a circular economy in fashion.

Jules Lennon, Fashion Lead at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, emphasized the initiative’s significance: “Through their participation in The Fashion ReModel, these organizations are advancing the circular economy for fashion. Brands must decouple revenue from production by redesigning products and rethinking services and business models to keep them in use.”

The initiative promotes circular business models such as rental, resale, repair, and remaking to maintain product use. These models have the potential to create new growth opportunities in the fashion industry. A recent study by the Foundation estimated that circular business models could capture 23% of the global fashion market by 2030, representing a $700 billion opportunity.

Particularly, it supposes the rise of promo campaigns for the rental, resale, repair, and remaking segments. For those interested in economical fashion options, a selection of fresh coupons on Promocodius is already available. As of now, many popular brands already offer savings opportunities like economic shopping at Bershka: https://promocodius.be/kortingscodes/bershka, and the number of the brands is forecasted to grow.

Fashion Business Model Based on Circular Economy

Leyla Ertur, Head of Sustainability at the H&M Group, supports the project, stating: “The Fashion ReModel offers an enormous opportunity by decoupling fashion growth from resource use, helping us to scale these models further.”

Building on the success of The Jeans Redesign project (2019-2023), which applied circular design principles to jeans, The Fashion ReModel aims to extend these principles to other garments and business models. The initiative focuses on three key drivers: product design, circular business models, and infrastructure.

The Fashion ReModel also explores business models beyond physical products, such as digital clothing and services, which can significantly enhance environmental benefits by reducing material waste and emissions.