The guidelines are based on the principles of a circular economy and will work to ensure jeans last longer, can easily be recycled, and are made in a way that is better for the environment and the health of garment workers.

These brands have signed up despite the huge disruptions to the fashion industry caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, signaling an unwavering commitment to circular economy thinking in the industry even in these extremely challenging times.

Towards the end of 2019, the Jeans Redesign project was extended to fabric mills, and additional mills have now signed up with this final cohort of participants. Although this is the last cohort of participants to sign up to the project, the guidelines will continue to be available online for any company that wants to implement them. The project will continue to inform the next steps of Make Fashion Circular.

The guidelines build on existing efforts to improve jeans production, including the open source guide created following C&A and Fashion For Good’s joint initiative to develop C2C Gold certified  jeans. They were developed with insights from more than 40 denim experts from academia, brands, retailers, manufacturers, collectors, sorters and NGOs. The first pairs of the redesigned jeans will be on sale later this year.

Participants who joined in 2019 are: Advance denim mill, Artistic Milliners, Arvind Limited, Ateliers and Repairs, BAM Bamboo Clothing, Bestseller (through the Vero Moda brand), Blue of a kind, Boyish Jeans, C&A, Cone Denim, Demco, Denim Expert, Denim Village, Fairblue Jeans, Frank And Oak, Frontline, GAP, Guess, H&M Group (through the H&M and Weekday brands), Hirdaramani, HNST, House of Gold (through Blue Diamond: Xingtai H&J Textiles Co Ltd), Kipas, Lee, Mud Jeans, Outerknown, Outland Denim, Prosperity Textiles, Reformation, Saitex, Tommy Hilfiger. The guidelines have also been endorsed by clothing collectors and recyclers Bank and Vogue, Circular Systems, Evrnu, Hkrita, I:CO, Infinited Fiber Company, Lenzing, Recover, Re:newcell, Soorty, Texaid, Tyton Biosciences LLC, Wolkat, and Worn Again.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (PC)