The designer perspective: Opportunities and Obstacles toward circular fashion

Abstract: Circular fashion has become a favoured option for the fashion industry to transition toward as the fast fashion industry becomes unsustainable. Current research within academia, business and policy focuses on the lifecycle stages of the garments, with the designer and design phase in focus. Research on circular economy predominantly looks at material flows and the lifecycle. This however fails to acknowledge potential innovation and the capacity for this change to occur. This study uncovers the perspectives of the designer, who are largely absent from the current research agenda, in order to identify leverage points in the current system which would allow accelerated transition toward a circular fashion system. Using workshops as a method to involve designers, paired together with critical systems theory; the study first highlights a large gap between academia and reality, and reveals that there is a large misconception between designers from fast fashion and designers from luxury fashion and the power influences they allow, while, underlying internal organizational structures pose as an obstacle minimizing capacities for change. Finally, using a three horizons framework as a technique, six leverage points are identified: cultural norm, strong teams, digitalization, leadership for sustainability, education & knowledge and reducing intergenerational conflicts. Overall, the study provides a holistic view of the current environment and the transition toward circular fashion, how lifecycle phases connect to circular economy frameworks and highlights innovation and the ways in which the designer can be re-empowered. The study bridges fashion business with sustainability science in a straightforward way and sets and refines the future research on solutions and challenges.