March 2026 Sustainable Fashion Update
Welcome to our March update
Circularity & Materials Innovation
The Denim Deal Lands in London. The Denim Deal made its high-energy UK debut this March, bringing together a global coalition of brands, mills, and innovators at London’s sustainable denim hub, LaundRE. The event marked a major step toward the initiative’s goal: producing 1 billion pairs of jeans containing at least 20% post-consumer recycled (PCR) cotton by 2030. The London edition showcased "Denim Deal approved" fabrics from member mills, proving that high-grade circularity is no longer a pilot concept but a commercial reality.
Worn Again Technologies unveils Accelerator plant to scale textile-to-fibre recycling technology. The facility demonstrates its chemical process at industrial scale, recovering polyester and cellulose from blended textiles as it moves towards full commercial deployment. Read more.
Harrods has partnered with Traid to redistribute surplus clothing through reuse channels. The initiative will see unsold stock collected, sorted and resold or reused, alongside employee donations and engagement programmes to support circular fashion outcomes. Read more.
Circ® has officially signed a partnership agreement with Xinxiang Bailu Chemical Fiber Co. Ltd, (the world’s largest viscose filament producer) a move designed to significantly scale the production of recycled cellulosic fibres. By combining Circ’s innovative hydrothermal processing technology with Bailu’s industrial manufacturing power, the duo aims to turn textile waste into high-quality, market-ready Lyocell and filament yarn. Peter Majeranowski, chief executive of Circ, said the agreement marked an important step in expanding the company’s presence in Asia and building out a wider manufacturing footprint. Circ • Circ Deepens Access to Recycled Fibers with Xinxiang Bailu Chemical Fiber Co., Ltd. Partnership Agreement
On Scales LightSpray™ with New South Korea Factory, Unlocking 30-Fold Production Increase Sportswear brand On is taking its "sprayed-on" shoe technology from niche to mass market. By opening a new 32-robot facility in Busan, South Korea, On is scaling LightSpray™ to increase production capacity 30-fold. This shift to fully automated, nearshore manufacturing marks a major step in reducing textile waste and CO2 emissions by eliminating traditional labour-intensive assembly.
UK launches business-focused circularity initiative backed by King Charles. The programme aims to support organisations in adopting circular practices through guidance, collaboration and industry engagement across key sectors. Read more.
ReBorn by LaundRe: Circular Denim Gets a Second Life. Reskinned and LaundRe have partnered to launch ReBorn, a collection that transforms discarded and unsold jeans into premium, one-of-a-kind garments. Sourced from Reskinned 's takeback programmes, each pair is processed at LaundRE London finishing hub using water-saving ozone sterilization and laser technology to create fresh, vintage-inspired styles without the environmental toll of new production.
BAM & SATCoL Launch "Any Brand" Take-Back Scheme. Sustainable activewear brand BAM has partnered with the Salvation Army Trading Company (SATCoL) to launch a free, nationwide clothing take-back scheme. Unlike many restrictive retail programs, BAM’s initiative accepts pre-loved garments from any brand, not just their own. Shoppers can generate a prepaid returns label online and send their unwanted textiles directly to SATCoL to be resold, repurposed, or recycled, ensuring a "fuss-free" route to keeping clothing out of landfill.
Retail Highs & Lows
John Lewis Transformation: John Lewis is investing in an £800m overhaul, integrating AI-powered shopping via ChatGPT and Gemini while launching a new TikTok Shop pilot. Despite a reported pre-tax loss of £21m due to exceptional charges, sales rose 5% to £13.4bn, allowing the Partnership to pay its first staff bonus (2%) since 2022.
Zalando’s AI Surge: Zalando reported 2025 growth, with revenue up 16.8% to €12.3bn. The e-tailer is proving AI's ROI: 90% of product content is now AI-generated, boosting content output by 70% and increasing coding productivity by a fifth.
Inditex Record Profits: Zara owner Inditex saw pre-tax profits climb 5.8% to £6.9bn on sales of £34.5bn. The group plans a £1.9bn capital expenditure for 2026, focusing heavily on store technology and online platform optimization.
Next Raises Guidance Amid Record Profits: Next reported a 13.4% surge in operating profit to £1.24bn for the year ending January 2026. While the retailer warned that conflict in the Middle East could impact supply chains and international sales, its strong UK performance has led to an upgraded profit guidance for the year ahead.
Debenhams Group raises outlook after better than expected profits. The business revealed it expects earnings to rise by 36% to £53 million for the year 28th Feb due to a 76% surge in the last 6 months.
H&M Prioritises Profitability Over Volume: Despite a 1% dip in Q1 sales to SEK 49.6bn (£3.9bn), H&M Group saw operating profit jump 26% to £120.9m. CEO Daniel Ervér credited "good cost control" and a reduction in markdowns for the margin boost, even as the group operated with a 4% smaller store estate compared to last year.
ASOS Staying the Course: ASOS has reaffirmed its full-year guidance, reporting profit growth in H1 2026 as it makes progress on its three strategic pillars of operational efficiency and inventory management.
Primark Pay Rise: Effective April 2026, Primark has increased hourly pay for 27,000 UK staff, with national customer assistant rates rising to £13 per hour to remain competitive in a tight labor market.
Gymshark achieved its 13th consecutive year of growth, with FY25 revenue climbing 7% to a record £646m. While pre-tax profit eased to £7m due to heavy investment in global flagship stores (including New York and Dubai) and free community events, the brand maintains a strong cash position of over £37m and double-digit EBITDA growth.
Matalan Accelerates Turnaround: Matalan has secured an additional £25m in funding from its core investor group to speed up its business transformation. The capital will specifically target 40 store refurbishments in the first half of 2026, following data showing that its revamped "modernized" stores are currently outperforming the rest of the estate by 12%.
Policy & Regulation
EU Publishes Official DPP Methodology: The European Commission has finalised the official methodology for Digital Product Passports (DPP) under the ESPR framework. This landmark document defines the specific data requirements - from material origin to circularity metrics - that fashion brands must legally disclose for every product sold in the EU starting in 2027. This moves the DPP from concept to a mandatory compliance reality, forcing a total overhaul of supply chain transparency.
Drapers Launches Conscious Fashion Manifesto. Drapers is calling on the industry to sign its new Conscious Fashion Manifesto, which urges the UK government to provide the legislative and financial support businesses need to transition to a circular economy. With early signatories including Selfridges, Mulberry, and New Look, the manifesto demands clearer policy frameworks and incentives to help retailers navigate the high costs of sustainable innovation and upcoming EPR requirements. Asos, Selfridges, Mulberry and New Look among signatories of Drapers Conscious Fashion Manifesto
Italy Intercepts 1,000+ Tons of Illegal Textile Waste: Italian authorities have seized over 1,000 tons of illegal textile waste destined for Africa and Asia. The shipment consisted of unsorted, contaminated clothing falsely labelled as "second-hand" to bypass export laws. This crackdown highlights the growing global rejection of "waste colonialism" and underscores the legal risks for retailers who fail to rigorously audit their downstream sorting and export partners.
In a major win for circular design, the Circular Textiles Foundation has secured official EU approval from the European Union Intellectual Property Office for its "Infinitee" certification. This mark verifies that a garment has been engineered specifically for recyclability, ensuring it can be processed by existing European recycling technologies with minimal disassembly and sorting costs. The certification is already being adopted by forward-thinking brands such as BAM Clothing, David Luke Ltd, and Regatta Professional, providing a verified "blueprint" for a waste-free textile industry.
H&M and Stella McCartney have launched an Insights Board, bringing together voices from across the industry to ensure the topic of sustainability remains “front and centre”. The mission of the board, which held its first meeting in London in March, is to invite a variety of industry perspectives to the table and approach sustainability in fashion from different angles - such as animal welfare, circularity, material innovation and communication. Its ultimate aim is to find new ways for brands, and for the industry as a whole, to influence and drive change. H&M and Stella McCartney Launch Insights Board for Sustainability - TheIndustry.fashion
Supply Chain & Ethics
FatFace Announces Landmark Net Zero Supplier Partnership: FatFace has launched a "landmark" partnership agreement to support its supply chain in reaching net zero. This initiative moves beyond traditional auditing by offering manufacturers financial and technical support to decarbonize operations. By focusing on Scope 3 emissions, FatFace is proactively addressing the most carbon-intensive part of the fashion lifecycle, ensuring long-term resilience and alignment with tightening global climate targets.
Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) announced V.8 GOTS Version 8.0 released: Advanced supply chain accountability, from fibre to finished product - GOTS - Global Organic Textile Standard Version 8.0 was finalised following two rounds of public consultations in 2025, each with extensive stakeholder engagement to align with global sustainability initiatives, including the ISEAL Code of Good Practice. After the transition period, GOTS Version 8.0 will be fully effective as of 1 March 2027.
Bangladesh is set to pilot a project to manage wastewater treatment and recycling solutions which is capable of recycling up to 85% of textile wastewater. The garment industry is one of the country’s major sources of industrial water pollution and the pilot project is aimed at reducing the environmental impact of garment manufacturing and help factories meet regulatory requirements and market demand. https://www.just-style.com/news/bangladesh-textiles-water-recycling/
Resale, Rental & Repair
Vinted Nears £7bn Valuation: Second-hand giant Vinted is finalizing a secondary share sale worth over £500m, backed by investors like BlackRock. The deal values the marketplace at approximately £7bn and follows a standout year where revenues are expected to have surpassed the €1bn mark for the first time.
Urban Oufitters rental business Nuuly sales have surged to 10% of sales. Nuuly now accounts for around 10% of Urban Outfitters overall revenue and is driving shoppers to the company’s other brands ie Free People and Anthropologie. This is notable for the apparel rental market.
New Balance expands resale programme to include apparel as circular offering grows. The Reconsidered platform now includes pre-owned clothing alongside footwear, with returned items cleaned, inspected and resold to extend product lifecycles. Read more.
London launches cross-borough initiative to increase reuse of school uniforms and cut textile waste. The programme will support collection, sorting and redistribution of pre-owned uniforms through schools, helping reduce costs for families while embedding circular practices across the education system. Read more.
Reports & Research
New Report: Financing the Supply Chain Transition. A major new white paper, Accelerating Fashion Decarbonisation, was released in March 2026 through a collaboration between H&M Group, EY, HSBC, and the Apparel Impact Institute (Aii). The report provides a strategic framework for CFOs and finance leaders to bridge the industry’s massive investment gap. It argues that supply chain decarbonisation should be viewed as a "net-value positive" driver of corporate resilience rather than a cost centre. By utilising collaborative financing models and "brand-backed" debt, the partners outline how retailers can de-risk the transition for suppliers while safeguarding long-term business value and meeting 2030 climate targets.
Visible tEPR charges on clothing P2. WEFT Limited and Manchester Metropolitan University, supported by Back to Baselines, explored how 2,803 UK clothing shoppers respond to visible textile EPR (tEPR) charges at the point of purchase, building new evidence on how charging structures could shape behaviour and support a more effective tEPR. Drawing on conjoint analysis and real purchase scenarios, this paper shows that £0.50 is a critical tipping point and sets out why real-world retail testing should now be the next step. EPR Sandbox White Paper | Testing EPR
Retail Employment Hits Record Low: New data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) reveals that the UK retail workforce shrunk to 2.81 million in 2025 a year-on-year drop of 68,000 employees and the lowest four-quarter average on record. The BRC attributes this to a perfect storm of rising operational costs, including a 10%–13% increase in the cost of employing entry-level staff due to National Insurance and Living Wage hikes. Retailers are reportedly scaling back headcounts and freezing recruitment to offset these costs, while expressing deep concern that impending changes to the Employment Rights Act may further reduce the flexibility that part-time retail roles traditionally offer.
Drapers’ released its third edition of the Sustainability and the Consumer report. This year’s report reveals environmental and ethical considerations have moved decisively into the mainstream of consumer thinking. Sustainability and the Consumer 2026 - Drapers
A recent "Who Pays?" report from the University of Leicester and Transform Trade has exposed the systemic financial risks shifted onto UK manufacturers. Despite rising operational costs, the survey reveals a stark disconnect between brand sustainability pledges and actual purchasing behaviour:
78% of suppliers reported that brands refuse to cover the costs of last-minute order changes.
75% of manufacturers saw no price adjustments to account for National Minimum Wage increases.
67% experienced "bait and switch" volumes, where buyers quoted for large orders to secure low unit costs but significantly cut final volumes.
Late payments remain a crisis, with 44% of factories facing regular extension requests and 10% waiting over three months beyond agreed terms.
Advocates are now using this data to renew calls for a "Garment Trading Adjudicator"- a statutory watchdog to regulate these relationships and ensure "Made in the UK" remains a viable, ethical label.
According to a study on UK consumers commissioned by the payments network Affirm, 70% of UK shoppers consider “cost-per-wear” when shopping for clothing. Among younger consumers, nearly 80% of shoppers aged 25–34 say they consider cost-per-wear when buying clothes. Brits rethink fashion as ‘investment wardrobes’ gain traction
Netflix premiered a new documentary detailing the potential link between microplastics and associated chemicals to fertility decline and long-term health risks. ‘The Plastic Detox’ dives into the various ways plastic products have been embedded into everyday life and investigates whether changing daily habits can mitigate their possible impact on health.
A new report from ReLondon and London Councils shows how a London-wide repair voucher scheme, an area of focus in the London Textiles Action Plan, could make repair accessible to everyone, support local businesses, and accelerate progress towards net zero. Report - A repair voucher scheme for London: an overview of different models and their potential impact - ReLondon
Shein Still Selling "Contaminated" Clothing. A 2026 follow-up investigation by Greenpeace reveals that ultra-fast fashion giant Shein continues to sell items containing hazardous chemicals, despite multiple warnings. In recent tests, 81% of products exceeded EU REACH chemical limits, often by extreme margins.The report highlights a pattern of "gross negligence," where Shein removed specific product IDs flagged in 2025 only to replace them with near-identical items from the same suppliers. Key findings include:
· PFAS "Forever Chemicals": Found in outdoor gear at up to 3,115 times the legal limit.
· Phthalates: Detected in footwear at over 100 times permitted levels.
Regulatory Loophole: As a direct-to-consumer platform, Shein effectively shifts the legal burden of "importer responsibility" onto the customer, evading standard UK/EU retail accountability.Shame_on_You_Shein_II.pdf