What Is Circular Fashion?
Keeping garments in use, and the business models that pay for it.
Circular fashion is the idea that clothing should stay in use for as long as possible through resale, repair, rental, and recycling, rather than moving in a straight line from factory to landfill. As a business concept, it matters because it reframes a used garment as inventory with remaining value rather than waste.
Resale is the most commercially proven arm of circular fashion. Repair and rental have their advocates, but resale is the one with public companies, real transaction volume, and brand participation. That is why circular fashion, in practice, often means resale wearing a sustainability label.
The tension worth watching is between the environmental story and the unit economics. Keeping a garment in circulation is genuinely lower-impact than making a new one, but only if the logistics of moving used goods do not quietly erase the benefit. Serious operators measure both.
For brands, circular fashion is increasingly a strategic position rather than a slogan. A credible resale or trade-in program lets a brand claim the circular narrative while recapturing value it used to hand to third parties.