ASOS Just Launched Their First-Ever Circular Fashion Collection

London based e-commerce fashion brand ASOS has launched its first-ever circular sustainable collection. The 29 piece collection is co-signed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the Centre for Sustainable Fashion, a part of London College of Fashion.

Back in 2018, ASOS made a commitment at the Copenhagen Fashion Summit to re-trained all ASOS designers to create a circular product ready for production by 2020. Copenhagen has already committed to mandate brands to meet 17 sustainable points by 2023. In this case, ASOS has made an 8 point system for the design and production of these 29 pieces.

“With all of our designers now trained in circular principles and our first circular collection out the door, we’re excited to see how we can take this project forward and use our size and scale to share our expertise with our suppliers but also other brands and retailers.”

Vanessa Spence, Head of Design at ASOS

Oversized cardigans, denim with washes, tees, and dresses are designed and styled in the trendy 90s fashion and tailored for today’s 20-something. Acid washes, wolf-tooth and micro prints infused into garments, accessories like sterling silver jewelry, bum-bags all add to the minimal aesthetic of the design.

Each piece has also met two of the three foundations of a circular economy, established by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and their Make Fashion Circular campaign. These include designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use, and regenerating natural systems. The idea behind this collection is to create fashion that has a longer life and can be re-fabricated as necessary after the life cycle with the customer.

Head of ASOS design, Spence says, “we’ve been on an incredible journey in ASOS over the past few years to discover how circular design can work in practice in an organization like ASOS, and working closely with our suppliers to apply the circular design principles that we’ve set ourselves.”

With this new collection of circular fashion, ASOS is encouraging its 23 million active customer base to create a sustainable wardrobe. They also want to foster a textile industry that is aware of the waste produced by the fashion industry with viable solutions through design.

Spence has hopes for this collection “shows is that you don’t need to choose between the circular economy and fashion and that you can make sustainable products without compromising on design or price.”

A QR code will be a feature on each garment tag where customers scan to visit and learn more about how each product is made and ASOS’s circular design principles.