Australia’s RMIT university has collaborated with four brands under Country Road Group to help establish guidelines for circular design.
According to RMIT, the aim of the guide is to eliminate wasteful designs and promote durable fashion that buoys reuse and recycling pathways, in order to help curb global fashion’s 10 per cent contribution to overall greenhouse gas emissions.
The new guide, Refashioning: accelerating circular product design at scale, outlines steps for makers to transition from linear to circular design, focusing on maximising the lifespan of products and materials.
Lead author and RMIT School of Fashion and Textiles Dean, Professor Alice Payne, said the guide challenged traditional design thinking with practical steps to enable change.
“This guide provides a systematic and methodological approach to implementing circular clothing design in a way that all organisations can implement, regardless of their size,” Payne said.
“Based on extensive research with the industry, we’ve created practical steps businesses can take to improve the circularity of their outputs.
“Although other circular design guides are available, Refashioning is unique in providing a systematic methodology that enables designers to both slow the flow and close the loop.”
According to the authors, the dominant production and consumption method used by most brands today creates clothing for a linear economy – a system of take, make and waste.
To switch to a circular method that allows materials to be recycled, critical aspects such as material choices, product purpose and use, durability, and end-of-life options need to be considered early in the design process.
For over a year, the team worked with eight product and design teams across four brands within the Country Road Group – Country Road, Trenery, Witchery and Politix – to test and refine the guides in a commercial context.
Country Road Group’s head of sustainability Erika Martin said working on the guide’s creation has started the group on a journey towards understanding and considering circular design across its brands.
“This project delivered a clear vision for circular design, and leveraged the expertise in the industry, academia and our own business,” Martin said.
“The opportunity to help create guidelines based on real life feedback and challenges and not just academic theory was a key driver for our involvement, alongside our commitment to building a better future.”
The guide was funded by Sustainability Victoria, with the collaboration also including two independent partners, circular design expert Courtney Holm and sustainability expert Julie Boulton.
Sustainability Victoria CEO Matt Genever said the research connected industry, government, and academia to address textile waste.
“It’s an example of how effective cross-sector collaboration can generate impactful results in the transition to a circular economy,” Genever said.
“By fostering partnerships across sectors, Sustainability Victoria enables meaningful change that moves beyond theory and into real, actionable solutions.”
Applied expertise was central to the design of the guidelines, as they were tested by users on actual products.
Refashioning: accelerating circular product design at scale, produced by RMIT co-authors Alice Payne, Yassie Samie, Jenny Underwood, Saniyat Islam, Rebecca Van Amber and Regine Abos, is published on refashioning.org.