Understanding What Circular Fashion Is: Redefining Sustainability in Apparel

The fashion industry has always encountered a lot of resistance when it comes to sustainability. Despite being one of the biggest industries in the world, it continues to overlook its participation in ecological harm. But currently, we are witnessing a pivotal shift towards ethical consumerism; as people become more conscious. This has led to a surge in curiosity towards circular fashion. 

But what exactly is circular fashion, and why is it witnessing sudden increased interest from both industry participants and environmentally conscientious consumers? In the following guide, let us have a closer look at what circular fashion is and what it has in store for us. 

What is circular fashion?

Circular fashion is a mindful approach to apparel manufacturing and consumption that prioritizes minimum virgin materials, reducing waste and environmental effects through increasing clothing’s lifetime, material reuse, and recycling. It focuses on the formation of a sustainable and environmentally friendly fashion sector by extending the shelf life of clothes and cutting down the use of natural resources. 

At its essence, circular fashion focuses on transforming from a traditional culture of short-term use of clothing into a long-lasting relationship with clothing. To bring this change within the industry, every stage of the fashion life cycle needs to be considered. From design to manufacturing to consumption to end of life, we need to enable a more regenerative and ethical approach.

Circular fashion aims to establish a closed-loop model where fabric is continuously reused, repurposed, and recycled, lowering waste and environmental impact, as opposed to seeing clothing as throwaway commodities with a limited lifespan.

Principle of Circular Fashion

Some of the few principles that Circular fashion is based on are as follows : 

Longevity and Durability: Producing clothes that stand the test of time is an important aspect of fashion. This is why circular fashion puts an emphasis on high-quality resources, versatile styles, and diligent craftsmanship. These measures help in minimizing the demand for regular replacements.

Material Innovation and Recycling: To reduce the environmental effect of production, circular fashion promotes incorporating environmentally friendly materials and recycling techniques. This entails using eco fabrics, recycled or repurposed fibers, and substitute materials made of renewable resources.

Efficiency of Resources and Closed-Loop Systems: Adopting circularity involves optimizing  resource utilization and reducing waste at every turn of the fashion cycle. From streamlining production processes to implementing recycling systems that enable continuous material reuse and resource efficiency lies at the heart of circular fashion practices.

Circular Business Models: Circular fashion includes innovative business structures such as providing recycling, upcycling, reselling, and rental choices. Not only does this increase the lifespan of the clothes, but also helps in minimizing  the need to buy new products frequently. Furthermore, these options provide economic leverage as there is a choice to wear a variety of clothing without actually needing to buy them. 

Consumer Engagement and Education: Raising awareness and educating the customer base is crucial in creating a circular culture. By educating the general public about waste produced by short lifespans of clothes, we can help customers make educated decisions.

Why do we need circular fashion?

In the present day, when the apparel industry is in dire need of a paradigm shift, sustainable approaches like circular fashion are a necessity. Here are a few reasons why we need circular fashion.

Depletion of Resources: Traditional fashion production heavily relies on resources as such raw materials leading to environmental harm and resource exhaustion. Circular fashion targets to minimize  natural resource consumption by putting closed-loop recycling in practice. 

Waste Reduction: From production to disposal, the fashion industry generates huge amounts of waste. Unused items, discarded clothing, harmful dyes, and plastic packaging are to name a few. Circular fashion continuously advocates for waste reduction. It focuses on extending the lifespan of clothing through practices such as reusing, recycling and repurposing.                      

Environmental Impact: The fashion industry is the third most  polluting sector in the global economy. Waste generated by factories is dumped in open water sources which is a leading cause of water pollution. Apart from that, burning the waste contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. 

Climate Change: Fashion activities contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions exacerbating climate change. By reducing emissions associated with garment manufacturing, packaging, distribution, and disposal, circular fashion will play a part in supporting climate change mitigation efforts.

Customer Demand: With growing awareness of the social impacts of their purchases, consumers are increasingly seeking produced and ethically sourced fashion items. Circular fashion meets this demand by offering environmentally friendly alternatives to traditional clothing choices.

Practices driving circular fashion 

Upcycle your clothing: To extend the lifespan of your clothes and reduce over-consumerism, you can upcycle your clothes and turn them into new pieces of higher value. This not only reduces waste but also allows you to exercise your creativity.

Reverse Logistics: This is a new initiative where brands conduct take-back programs. You can donate your worn clothes under such programs and brands then recycle the fabric to produce new clothes thus giving them another life. 

Collaborations and Partnerships: Activists and influencers can collaborate with various stakeholders in the fashion industry and join forces to raise awareness for circular fashion. Partnerships across all domains such as manufacturing, production, and policymakers can lead to fundamental changes and accelerate the whole process.

Digital Technologies:  In the era of technology, we can utilize digital innovations to help in supply chain tracking and develop transparent pathways for clothing items. This can help consumers to make well-informed choices upon knowing the product's materials, the source, and environmental impact.

Challenges

The acceptance of circular fashion has several challenges that hinder its broad implementation, despite its promise for sustainability. Some of these challenges are:

Infrastructure Limitations: One of the biggest challenges we are facing in the implementation of circular fashion norms is inadequate infrastructure. The fashion industry lacks the proper infrastructure for closed-loop system components such as collection, sorting, and recycling. 

Regulatory Hurdles: There exist many rules and regulatory guidelines that are not adapted to circular fashion. This makes it difficult for business owners to opt for a circular approach. 

Stigma Among Consumers: Even though the voice for sustainable fashion keeps getting louder, there is still a lot of stigma among consumers towards the reuse and repurposing of fashion accessories. There needs to be a change in consumer behavior  for circular fashion to grow. 

Supply Chain Complexity: The global supply chain logistics are focused on a unidirectional production process. There are numerous hurdles in forming a looped process regarding geography, collection areas, etc. 

Cost Considerations: Although circular fashion cuts down a lot of prices by increasing the lifespan of clothes, there is still a big monetary requirement for technology, research, and implementation. This can prove to be an expensive investment for many businesses. Also, circular fashion aims to create fine quality clothes which can be expensive for buyers. 

Another big issue with circular fashion is that these innovative fabrics or recycled fabrics have a large MOQ making it very hard for small brands (like Swey) to purchase this fabric. 

Role of Swey in circular fashion : 

The key foundation of Swey was to have a positive impact on the planet, creating beautiful and functional products that do not end up in landfills. Here are some of the circular fashion approaches that Swey follows : 

Design: When products at Swey are designed, the principles of circular fashion are always taken into account. Clothes are crafted using minimal virgin materials and only high-quality resources are used. Products are designed in a way that they can be easily reused and recycled. 

Manufacturing: Swey exclusively works with ethical factories that adhere to sustainable and responsible approaches. We ensure that artisans working there are provided safe conditions, appropriate wages, and reasonable working hours.

Supplier packaging: While packaging, it is made sure that plastic packaging is kept to a minimum and environment-friendly alternatives are preferred 

Customer packaging: When customer products are packed, they are free from any type of plastic packaging. Reusable bags with 100% recyclable materials are used such as kraft paper. The cards with ‘note to customer’ are also made from recycled materials.   

Shipping: The shipping process is tailored in a way that there is minimal carbon emissions. It is completely carbon neutral and causes the slightest possible harm to the environment. 

Apart from these measures taken throughout the production journey, there are some steps taken by our brand to ensure Swey products have a circular and transparent life. 

There is an “End of life’ program offered by Swey where one can give back their clothes when there is no more use for them. The clothes are then given to recycling again and are prevented from ending up in landfills.

Also for charity, one tree is planted for each product purchased to offset our carbon footprint. During the holiday season of 2023, 10% of our sales were donated to a program that supports mothers in India to ensure they had safe deliveries and safe home supplies with their newborns. 

Conclusion

The incorporation of circular fashion holds the potential to transform the fashion industry. As it leads to a more sustainable future, circular fashion is the need of the hour.

Embracing circularity can help stakeholders address issues, and carbon footprints and preserve resources. As consumers start placing importance on sustainability when making purchases, we can mark a new era of ethical and responsible fashion.