Circular Fashion News / Apr 21st: Vestiaire Resale Guide, EU Ecodesign working plan, Trove's European expansion, Report on fashion brands' circularity
Your weekly edit of what has happened in the circular fashion space. In this week's edit, highlight is on resale with Vestiaire's new Resale Report, and on textile-to-textile recycling partnerships.
Welcome to reading a weekly recap of circular fashion news! Some of last week’s highlights in the circular fashion industry included:
Good On You releasing a report revealing the state of fashion brands’ circularity
The EU revealing the 2025–2030 working plan for Ecodesign Regulation (ESPR)
Vestiaire Collective launching a Resale Buying Guide & releasing additional data on the luxury brand market in collaboration with research firm Bernstein
A branded resale solution provider, Trove, acquiring reverse.supply and expanding to Europe
Rental solution provider, CaaStle, securing a bridge loan to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Brightfiber launching a fully automated textile-to-textile recycling factory in Amsterdam
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Table of Contents
Overall industry news – Big news & shifts impacting fashion circularity.
Fashion resale news – News regarding resale companies & state of the industry.
Fashion rental news – News regarding rental companies & state of the industry.
Textile recycling news – Innovations and the state of textile recycling.
Bookmarked this week – New section! Brands, initiatives, and articles discovered.
Industry News
Good On You’s report reveals the state of fashion brands’ circularity
Good On You has released its “Fashion Planet Benchmark Report,” visually illustrating the gap between the fashion industry’s action plans and actual progress. The report points to major shortfalls in emissions tracking, supply chain transparency, and circular design. Data was gathered from 1,372 large and 4,032 small fashion brands.
From a circularity standpoint, the findings show that fashion brands are still far from putting true circular practices into action. Among the key stats:
Only 6% of large brands report investing in circularity-related research and development
Just 3% of large brands offer rental, and 13% offer resale
The report takes also a critical look at the types of circularity efforts brands have implemented. While 33% of large brands and 39% of small brands have launched at least one initiative, the report emphasizes that “few brands have truly achieved anything resembling circularity at scale, though small brands lead the way in some areas.”
Reading between the lines, the report suggests the real issue isn’t a lack of solutions or direction, but a lack of ambition. Fashion brands largely know what to do when it comes to circularity; what’s missing is the commitment and resources to actually implement it.
The EU revealed the 2025–2030 working plan for Ecodesign Regulation (ESPR)
The European Commission revealed the working plan for 2025-2030 regarding the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulations (ESPR). The working plan has a key focus on textiles and apparel, mainly due to their large market size and high environmental impact, and therefore significant improvement potential.
Regarding textiles, specific goals under ESPR include:
Improving durability, repairability, and material efficiency.
Reducing environmental harms from production and consumption.
Promoting reuse, recycling, and waste prevention.
So, what are some of the things happening in practice?
Unlike previously expected, the ban on the destruction of unsold clothing will not take effect yet. While the ESPR includes the option for such a ban, the Commission has decided not to implement it in the 2025–2030 working plan. The reason? It’s considered “premature”. The mandatory disclosure on the destruction of unsold consumer goods came into force this year, and the Commission wants to first gather and assess that data before moving forward.
The rollout of the Digital Product Passport (DPP) looks like to be moving forward as planned.
Fashion Resale
Vestiaire Collective launched a Resale Buying Guide
Vestiaire Collective launches a “Resale Buying Guide” (the first of its kind) for spring/summer 2025. The guide spotlights brands and product categories that retain or grow in value over time, across a range of price points. It’s designed to help users make more informed decisions about what to buy, sell, and keep, whether they’re looking to maximize resale value or simply shop smarter.
Alongside trend insights like the fastest-selling items and their price tags, the guide also debuts a new metric: the Vestiaire Value Ranking score (V.V.R.). This data-driven score ranks products based on resale value growth, sales, volume, user engagement, and the number of resale negotiations. The score takes a broad range of data into account, offering a nuanced view of a product's value. By incorporating historical trends, it balances out short-term sales spikes and highlights items with long-term desirability.
More from Vestiaire’s data vault: The market of luxury brands, in collaboration with research firm Bernstein
In addition to their Resale Buying Guide, last week Vestiaire Collective also announced a partnership with research firm Bernstein, and released some current market data about luxury brands. Here are some insights from the report:
The top-performing categories according to YoY GMV growth:
Quiet Luxury (+1,280 bps): Led by brands like Loro Piana, Bottega Veneta, and The Row.
Creative Runner-ups (+975 bps): Includes Loewe, Miu Miu, Saint Laurent.
Footwear (+101 bps): Includes brands like Golden Goose and Manolo Blahnik.
Declining categories according to YoY GMV growth:
Watches & Jewellery (-898 bps): Decline largely due to weak demand in watches.
Italian Classic (-165 bps): Includes brands like Versace, and Fendi.
Insights about market dynamics:
Buyer vs. Seller Growth: Categories like Footwear and Creative Runner-ups are gaining more buyers than sellers, which relates to strong momentum.
Quiet Luxury shows mixed results. Even though YoY GMV growth is high, the market has more sellers than buyers, indicating a possible trend peak.
Trove, a branded resale solution provider, acquires reverse.supply, and expands to Europe
Trove, a third-party branded resale solution provider, is expanding into Europe. As part of this move, the company has acquired the German resale solution provider reverse.supply.
Trove CEO, Terry Boyle, commented on the timing of the expansion: "The acquisition comes at a strategic time as changing European legislation around producer responsibility and right-to-repair creates urgency for brands to establish effective resale, repair, and recycling programs.”
The biggest branded resale solution providers currently operating in the European market include Faume, Reflaunt, and now, Trove.
Fashion Rental
Rent the Runway 2024 full-year results: Revenue grew and losses narrowed, but subscribers declined
One of the largest fashion rental platforms in the US, Rent the Runway, has published its full-year financial results for fiscal year 2024. Here are the key takeaways:
Revenue grew slightly: The company brought in $306.2 million in revenue, a 2.7% increase from $298.2 million in fiscal year 2023.
Subscribers declined slightly: Rent the Runway had 132,574 average active subscribers, down 2% from the previous year’s 135,211.
Cash burn hit a record low and losses narrowed: The company used $6.6 million in cash during FY2024, a major improvement compared to the $70.5 million it burned through in FY2023. In addition, they reported a net loss of $69.9 million, down from $113.2 million the year before.
While Rent the Runway is still not profitable, they seem to be aiming for that with all they've got (the pressure from shareholders is probably intense). The company is losing less money and burning less cash than before, a sign that it's becoming more financially disciplined: improving operations, making better inventory allocations, and perhaps getting the cost of customer acquisition down. Even though subscriber numbers dipped slightly, slower cash burn and a narrowing net loss suggest the business may be inching closer to a sustainable model.
Whether that path leads to profitability will depend on their ability to continue to grow revenue without significantly increasing costs, and to stabilize or grow their subscriber base. For the year 2025, Rent the Runway aims to achieve free cash flow.
Rental solution provider, CaaStle, secured a bridge loan to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
A couple of weeks ago, we covered the growing challenges faced by CaaStle, a US-based third-party rental solution provider, in light of serious financial troubles and allegations of financial misconduct against its CEO.
Last week, the company secured a bridge loan to support its preparations for filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This legal process allows businesses to reorganize and restructure their debts while continuing to operate.
Textile Recycling
Brightfiber launched a textile-to-textile recycling factory in Amsterdam – Brightfiber has opened a fully automated factory in the Amsterdam Metropolitan area that transforms locally collected used clothing into high-quality textile fibers. The facility is capable of processing up to 2.5 million kg of regional textile waste annually, turning it into valuable raw materials for new textiles.
RE&UP partners with Marchi & Fildi to develop recycled cotton yarns – Textile recycler RE&UP has joined forces with leading yarn manufacturer Marchi & Fildi to co-develop a new line of high-quality recycled cotton yarns. The collaboration combines RE&UP’s innovative textile-to-textile recycling technology with Marchi & Fildi’s deep expertise in sustainable yarn production.
Reju and Rematrix join forces to secure textile waste feedstock – Regenerative textile company Reju has partnered with Italian Producer Responsibility Organization Rematrix to create a long-term supply chain for waste textiles. Rematrix supports fashion brands in managing the end-of-life phase of their products, and will now provide Reju’s Regeneration Hub with a stream of post-consumer textiles for recycling.
Circ and Acegreen announce strategic agreement to scale textile recycling – Circ has signed a multi-year agreement with Acegreen, a subsidiary of Taiwan’s Acelon Chemicals & Fiber Corporation, to accelerate the commercialization of textile-to-textile recycling. Under the deal, Acegreen will purchase Circ’s recycled pulp and polyester from its first commercial-scale plant over the next five years. The recycled pulp will be used to produce lyocell fibers, helping brands integrate circular materials into their supply chains.
Bookmarked this week
Discovered
Upcycled fashion brand: Namai Studio – Namai is an independent, New York-based fashion brand founded by Bianca Kuttickattu in 2020. The brand’s flagship product, beautiful patchwork jackets, are made from repurposed antique Indian textiles with the traditional Bengali craft of patching together and embroidering cloth and saris, Kantha quilting.
Mending initiative: Front Porch Threads – A mending and upcycling experiment by Danielle Urban. As part of the project, Danielle runs an insightful Substack and has created an open source list of mending clubs and workshops around the world.
Secondhand online store: Volià Atelier – A beautiful secondhand online store with curated capsule collections by Johanna and Sandra Nygren Johansson. The style follows a Scandinavian aesthetic with a slight French twist. The store was recently featured in Vogue Scandinavia.
Latest discovery in fashion resale solutions: Outset Style – A new wave in fashion resale streamlines the selling process, making it faster and easier for individuals to list their items. One of the latest solutions is the ability to automatically fetch product data directly from email receipts. Companies leveraging this functionality include, for example, Future Reference, Carouge, Outset, Shopfront, Bought, and the wardrobe and styling app Alta.
Read & listened
Article: Circular Fashion – From Environmental Imperative To Practical Necessity – Interline’s article examines the rise of circular fashion in light of new economic conditions rather than the past discussion on “moral clarity” and sustainability. The article makes an especially interesting point about fashion rental: it is not the solution to fashion’s emission or waste problem, but it can provide a valuable “new behaviour loop that de-emphasises ownership.”
Substack: Week/End: Sustainable Fashion News – When it comes to the ever-changing landscape of US tariffs, as well as regulation topics (and complex fashion sustainability news!), Brittany Sierra’s Week/End: Sustainable Fashion News is the best source I’ve found to communicate them simply but in detail.
That is all from last week, let’s hear again next Monday! In the meantime, let’s continue the discussion in the comments, on LinkedIn, or in the newly published Circular Fashion News Instagram!
xx Tiina
