Towards a sustainable fashion industry: the potential and challenges of integrating the frameworks of slow fashion and circular fashion

Sustainability practices have been applied to the fashion industry to improvethe negative impacts of fashion consumption. Circular fashion and slow fashion are themost widely promoted frameworks, explicitly used with different approaches anddefinitions. This study focused on overlooked aspects of circular fashion. Defined asclothes, shoes or accessories that are designed, sourced, and produced to be used andcirculated responsibly in society for as long as possible, circular fashion is intended tobe made from safe, recycled, or renewable material. Closed-loop production processesreusing material waste emphasize production scope, materials, and utility to extendproduct life cycles. Slow fashion simultaneously highlights the socioeconomic aspectby supporting local production, ethical practices, and craftsmanship. These twoframeworks share overlapping emphases on production, materials, and physical- andemotional durability. Results were that slow fashion might enhance and complementCircular Fashion, as illustrated in two case studies: the British luxury fashion houseBurberry and Kering, a French-based multinational corporation specialized in luxurygoods. The goal was to identify the potentials and challenges for the integration of slowfashion principles into circular fashion through real-world examples.