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“Circular Is the New Black”: Redefining the Fashion Industry

There has been a great deal of discussion here and elsewhere about how the pandemic has accelerated efforts to restructure the textiles and apparel supply chain, resulting in both companies exiting China for destinations such as Vietnam and India, as well as reshoring of textiles and apparel in the US and Europe facilitated by the growing availability of digital technologies that enable new ways to design, manufacture and distribute textiles and apparel. This article contains a review of a report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation: “A New Textiles Economy: Redesigning Fashion’s Future.” Well worth reading in full!

Thursday, August 27, 2020

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation was formed in 2010 with a goal of accelerating the transition to a circular economy. To do so, it brings together organizations and experts from around the globe to examine value chains across a variety of industries. In 2017, the organization published a report on the textile and apparel industry. While the report, A New Textiles Economy: Redesigning Fashion’s Futureis more than three years old, it is perhaps even more relevant now than when it was published. That’s why we felt it was important to highlight its content here.

In the introduction to the report, a number of people provided testimonials in support of the report. This one in particular caught my eye, referring to the need for the textiles industry to join the circular economy:

“Circular is the new black! We need a fashion industry based on three principles: clean, fair and good.” —Antoinette Guhl, Deputy Mayor of Paris in Charge of Circular Economy


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About Cary Sherburne

Cary Sherburne is a well-known author, journalist and marketing consultant whose practice is focused on marketing communications strategies for the printing and publishing industries.

Cary Sherburne is available for speaking engagements and consulting projects. To get more information contact us.

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