A group of apparel brands and retailers have made the pledge to a more circular business model by joining The Fashion ReModel project.
Backed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the initiative was launched last year at the Global Fashion Summit with the goal of embedding circular business models into everyday operations for fashion brands. Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman parent Tapestry, Colombian apparel group Crystal S.A.S., French sporting goods retailer Decathlon and U.K. department store John Lewis form the second cohort of the multi-year project.
The Fashion ReModel works with brands to demonstrate how they can make money without making new clothes and contributing to the problem of overconsumption and textile waste. The project challenges participating brands to scale up circular practices such as recycling, repair and resale while dialing back on production of new goods.
“Brands and retailers joining The Fashion ReModel is a strong signal that industry leaders are ready to take the next step towards a new normal for the fashion industry, with circular business models at its heart,” said Jules Lennon, fashion lead at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. “While practices including rental, repair and resale are already firmly on the agenda of businesses across the globe, successfully implementing them has often proved challenging, resulting in them remaining at a small scale.”
According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the millions of tons of clothing produced, worn and thrown away each year equals a truckload of clothing being burned or buried every second in landfills globally.
By signing on to The Fashion ReModel, these companies pledge to make design choices and policy decisions that will lead to the growth of circular business, which the Ellen MacArthur Foundation said could rise to 23 percent of the global fashion market by 2030.
“Brands must now demonstrate that they can take the next step and embed these models into their core operations, driving change towards an industry where clothes are kept in use for longer and their lives are extended to many more people,” Lennon said.
The new cohort of brands joins an existing group of participants that includes Arc’teryx, H&M Group and Primark. Earlier this year, the H&M Foundation endowed The Fashion ReModel with a donation of around $15 million.
That funding will allow The Fashion ReModel to help participating brands to tap into the $73 billion rental and resale market in fashion, according to 2021 data from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
“We recognize that the future of fashion lies in evolving the traditional link between growth and new resource consumption,” said Logan Duran, vice president of sustainability, Tapestry. “Our participation in The Fashion ReModel represents a pivotal moment in our sustainability journey—one where innovation meets responsibility. By quantifying the climate impacts of circularity, we’re not just following industry trends; we’re helping to create the roadmap that others may follow.”
The Fashion ReModel built its framework on standardized definitions and principles shaped by more than 150 players throughout the fashion value chain. Participants follow these guidelines to expand circular practices, reporting to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation each year to update their progress.
“Joining this project offers a fantastic opportunity to accelerate our business model transformation towards essential circular solutions for the apparel industry,” said Maeva Lombardo, sustainability director, Decathlon. “Reuse, second life and repair are central to our sustainability commitment, making this a natural next step in building a more responsible future and it reflects our shared conviction that industry-wide collaboration is essential to transform our practices in service of the planet.”
