Report Says We Should Halve Our Clothes Shopping

Consumers should buy half as many new garments as they do used items, according to the organiser of London Fashion Week. Fashion merchants should focus on selling secondhand items and mending goods in-store. 

Caroline Rush, the British Fashion Council's (BFC) chief executive, has cautioned British fashion firms that they must sell less items in order to reduce the industry's massive environmental impact. 

The BFC's Institute of Positive Fashion Report, released as London Fashion Week winds down, calls on brands to encourage shoppers to buy 50 percent fewer new clothes in order to move away from the current trend-driven model, which consumes 98 million tonnes of non-renewable resources and generates 92 million tonnes of waste each year. 

The goal is to address the industry's massive environmental footprint, particularly its contribution to climate change, which amounts for 5% of world emissions, which is more than aviation.

According to the research, structural change is required to address waste throughout the supply chain, the huge volume of clothing purchased yearly in the UK – four billion items in 2019 – and the percentage of clothing that ends up in landfill. 

Around 90% of fashion and textiles purchased on UK high streets are imported, whereas 60% of worn textiles collected in the UK are exported. 

Despite selling fewer clothes, the industry could generate hundreds of thousands of new jobs by 2035 by implementing new "circular" business models such as secondhand, rental, and subscription, developing virtual outfits, and repairing old clothes that currently end up in landfills and are later incinerated, according to the report. 

Consumers in the United Kingdom have already shown that they are willing to change their shopping habits, whether it is to be more environmentally friendly or because their perceptions about the way they purchase their clothes has changed.

According to a poll of "high-intensity buyers" – those who buy two or more new pieces each month – 37 percent already use rental services, 58 percent fix clothing at home, and 63 percent buy used articles. 

However, 54% of customers are unconcerned about their purchase's environmental impact. 

"The UK has all the ingredients needed to create a blueprint for a circular fashion economy that will deliver significant environmental, commercial and societal benefits" Ms Rush added.

“The mammoth job at hand to put this into action can be supercharged through a Sustainable Fashion Programme that sees industry, Government and stakeholders all come to the table to play their part beyond their focus of each individual business.

“We have an opportunity to create this target state quicker and in doing so creating jobs and skills benefiting the UK as a whole.”

With sales of £118 billion, 890,000 employees, and £35 billion contributed to the UK's pre-pandemic GDP, the UK fashion market is one of the largest in the world.