Picture it: the perfect circle.
So much more interesting and beautiful than a simple line. We hope you agree?
There’s a legendary tale of Giotto, the Italian artist, being approached by a messenger of the Pope to provide a sample of his work. Giotto allegedly drew a perfect circle freehand and handed it to the messenger. While the messenger reacted dismissively, it was in fact presented to the Pope, who awarded Giotto the gig, recognising that such talent was rare.
Rather like fully circular brands, which are similarly rare. Most fashion brands are linear after all.
Within the minority that cannot be described as linear, fortunately there are those that close the loop (with upcycling or downcycling), repair and/or fully recycle clothing waste. And it’s those that we’re going to profile.
POMP
First up, POMP. You see, we’re actually fully circular so we’re definitely going to feature ourselves on this list without being embarrassed.
Not only are products made to order so there’s no waste from overstocking, but when products are no longer wearable or desired, they can be sent back for free. Just follow the instructions on the wash care label. The materials will be reprocessed and made into brand new products, like our Recycled Range. Just as good as new. You’ll even get store credit in return for sending the item back!
Men's sustainable essential t-shirt
Mara Hoffman
Mara Hoffman is a brand that is open about the journey that it is on, improving the way they do things. When sourcing for their designs, the brand prioritises natural, recycled, and organic fibres and does not use any fur, leather, or feathers. Designs are made with circularity in mind, choosing pure fibres and materials that can be easily recycled when possible.
The brand suggests that customers extend the life of their clothing by either getting a tailor to adjust the item, repurposing, repairing, or reselling the item. Crucially they offer customers the option to resell on their own via the Full Circle Marketplace, alongside a take-back process.
Outerknown
Through its reselling platform, Outerworn, Outerknown has kept 1818 items of its branded clothing out of landfills. Not only that, they've rescued denim to make blankets - and recycled wool sweaters to create mittens.
What’s more is that the brand has set a target of becoming fully circular by 2030 by designing products from regenerative or recycled materials. To do this, it has an interim goal of demonstrating circular solutions by 2025.
RE/DONE
RE/DONE started in 2014 with the idea of upcycling vintage Levi’s denim. The brand reports that it has upcycled over 200,000 pairs of vintage Levi’s and saved 1.675 million gallons of water. It has branched out into different materials including leather and has even used tires that did not pass quality control checks for road usage!
It has gone on to produce garments which use pre-consumer and/or post-consumer waste, as well as refurbished garments (e.g. leather jackets). Over half of RE/DONE’s sales come from upcycled and recycled clothing. A testament to its circular credentials.
Patagonia
It’s likely that you’ve already heard of Patagonia with its quite frankly legendary impact.
While the internet dunks on venture capitalists for uniformly wearing Patagonia vests, the founder, Yvon Chouinard and family showed how to finance change by recently transferring all ownership to two new entities such that Patagonia proclaimed: “Earth is now our only shareholder.”
Patagonia buys back used Patagonia products through their Worn Wear programme and gives back up to 50% of the resale price as credit which can be used toward purchases in-store online at Patagonia or Worn Wear. Recrafted and repaired Patagonia clothes are also available for purchase at Worn Wear Patagonia.
Thousand Fell
Shoes are attracting increasing attention from those interested in improving circularity. Often the complexity is derived from the variety of materials used to make shoes. However, Thousand Fell has found a way through an arrangement with Supercircle, to refurbish your returned items or recycle them into raw materials to make new shoes or other products such as furniture batting, insulation or padding.
They even give you credits for your returned items to use on any future purchases. What’s more is that they also take products from other brands.
Tentree
Tentree, like Thousand Fell, has a partnership with Supercircle, which allows it to achieve circularity. As a result, apart from a reselling programme, Tentree offers the opportunity for customers to send back clothes (of any brand) for recycling.
Tentree states that clothes that are sent back will be resold or recycled into new materials. Nothing is thrown away.
MUD Jeans
MUD Jeans claims to be the world’s first circular denim brand. Their credentials include creating the first jeans made from 100% post-consumer recycled cotton.
With every MUD purchase, customers can send back any old jeans for recycling, as long as they are at least 96% cotton. In collaboration with the denim experts at Recover and Tejidos Royo in Valencia, new denim fabrics are made containing up to 40% post-consumer recycled cotton. Through this approach, MUD Jeans was able to save 18,363 pairs of jeans from landfills and incineration in 2022 alone!
Furthermore, the company has a repair programme as well as a leasing programme for a monthly fee.
Subset
If you’ve ever heard of a brand called Knickey, you may already be aware/excited to know that they are now called Subset. Subset is, of course, a sustainable underwear brand. As underwear notoriously heads straight to landfill (due to hygienic reasons), this is a worthy problem to tackle.
Subset, through a partnership with Supercircle, takes your worn-out underwear, bras, socks and tights and turns them into new materials like insulation, carpet padding and furniture batting. Closing yet another loop.
Ecoalf
Ecoalf has been collaborating with The Loop project to improve circularity within its business. It has gone from a 30% recycled cotton collection in 2014 to a 100% recycled cotton collection in 2023. This collection is estimated to have saved 1.4 billion litres of water compared to the industry standard.
Ecoalf is committed to becoming a net zero brand by 2030 and with its circularity credentials, it is surely no surprise that it has been rated the Most Environmentally Responsible Company in Spain in 2022 and 2023.
Bearmade
Accessories are a key part of any fashion aficionado’s ensemble and deserve their own circular loop. Thankfully, Bearmade has been working on this with their repair and recycle programme for the bags they sell. Any manufacturing defects are repaired for free whereas wear and tear is repaired for a fee.
While the products are made to last a lifetime, they offer to buy back bags in exchange for 10% of the bag’s original value in the form of credit to spend on a replacement. They will then take the bag apart and reuse what they can.
Hylo Athletics
Hylo wants you to run like the world depends on it, ideally in their vegan shoe offerings. In terms of circularity, Hylo has established the hyloop platform to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.
In addition to a care and repair policy, the brand is happy to take back and recycle both hylo and non-hylo shoes (limited to UK customers at the moment). The types of shoes that they currently take are trainers, sneakers, or athletic shoes in line with their sporty focus.
Conclusion
What a remarkable bunch of circular fashion brands!
Closing the loop on linear fashion is challenging especially when you are a small player next to the fast fashion behemoths. It’s therefore natural to partner with recycling specialists to achieve your circular aims.
Fortunately, investor interest in circularity is increasing which will allow circular fashion brands to scale up so long as the demand is there from customers. So go ahead and support your favourite circular fashion brands!
If you haven’t already, you can browse our collections by visiting the shop here.
