Patagonia, The North Face, Levi's top Kearney's Circular Fashion Index

Patagonia, Levi’s and The North Face reported scores of 8.50, 8.20 and 8.05 respectively, improving their performance over 2020. Some implementations propelled the growth, such as Patagonia’s equipment rental program with the gear-renting platform Awayco and enhanced use of recycled fabrics.

Kearney released its latest Circular Fashion Index (CFX), a ranking that measures fashion brands’ efforts toward extending the life cycle of their clothes.

In the top 10 global ranking, Esprit came fourth, followed by OVS, Gucci, Gant, Coach, Lululemon Athletica and Lindex.

OVS and Gucci improved their scores, jumping from the 17th and 15th positions they had in 2020 respectively to the fifth and sixth this year.

OVS raised its commitment to recycled fabrics, starting from a 65 per cent share of the 2020 collection made with reduced-impact materials and aiming to reaching 90 per cent of recycled fabrics by 2025. Improved care instructions, repair services available in some stores and donation of pre-owned clothes to charity were among other implementations that boosted the score of the Italian brand.

Even if communication and promotion of circularity efforts are among the fastest measures to implement, 44 per cent of brands don’t do it at all, and 40 per cent of companies give the minimum amount of care instructions required by law.

As for actions demanding higher commitment, only 5 per cent—mostly luxury brands—offer extensive repair services and just 2 per cent of the brands provide rent or lease ones.

Gucci, which intensified efforts with the Gucci Equilibrium and Off the Grid projects as well as increased the communication around product longevity and circularity, led the top 10 list for the luxury category specifically, ranking ahead of Coach and Burberry. The other luxury companies in the list were Louis Vuitton, Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Dior, Prada and Hermes.

Gant topped the premium and affordable luxury ranking, followed by Cos and Sandro. The Kooples and Tommy Hilfiger came fourth and fifth respectively, while this segment’s top 10 also included Free People, Hollister, Abercrombie & Fitch, Ralph Lauren and Timberland.

The ranking for mass market included Levi’s, Esprit and OVS, while Crocs and Uniqlo featured in fifth and seventh positions respectively.

In the fast-fashion arena, Jules/Brice, Tape à l’oeil and H&M reported the top three scores. Zara and Bershka ranked seventh and eighth respectively.

For the sports and outdoor segment, Lululemon Athletica ranked third, following Patagonia and The North Face. The other companies in this ranking were Columbia, Decathlon, New Balance, Adidas, Nike, Mizuno and Merrell.

For underwear and lingerie brands, Etam, Wolford and Intimissimi reported the top three scores. Calzedonia, Yamamay and Victoria’s Secret also featured in this category’s list, ranking fifth, seventh and eighth respectively.

Overall, luxury and premium brands reported the highest scores due to their extensive care instructions and repair services implemented to answer more demanding consumers, while the fast-fashion and lingerie brands had the lowest scores due to the nature of their business model and because secondhand or rental services are harder to introduce in these segments.

Almost 75 per cent of total brands came from France, Italy, Germany and the United States.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)