The section titled “Revenir à la case départ” is not a narrative reset but a structural correction. After exploring futuristic, almost seductive material innovations earlier in the book, the author deliberately pulls the reader back to an uncomfortable baseline: the fashion industry’s problem is not a lack of exciting new materials, but a failure to redesign the system that governs raw materials and waste.
By returning to Première Vision, the epicentre of traditional textile power, and by walking—literally—to the farthest corner of the exhibition hall to find Smart Creation, the author spatialises the argument. Sustainable innovation exists, but it remains marginal, physically and economically overshadowed by incumbent giants. These start-ups are described not as visionaries selling hope, but as entities exposing a reality that most of the industry would prefer not to confront.
The numbers that follow are blunt and destabilising: production continues to rise, waste continues to accelerate, and at current rates most garments will still end up burned or buried. The message is unambiguous: a system that produces more every year without a plan for where products end up is structurally broken.
Linear Thinking as the Core Design Flaw
The author explicitly identifies the enemy as linear thinking: birth, use, death—“cradle to grave.” This is not framed as a moral failure but as a design failure. Fashion, as currently structured, assumes disposal as an acceptable endpoint.
The proposed alternative—circular or closed-loop systems—is presented not as an abstract ideal but as the only logical response if production volumes are to remain anywhere near current levels. The author’s formulation is deliberately radical: ideally, nothing should ever become waste. This sentence quietly establishes the benchmark against which all subsequent initiatives will be judged.
Ellen MacArthur: From Ethical Appeal to Industrial Framework
The introduction of Ellen MacArthur marks a decisive shift from critique to architecture. Her role in the narrative is not inspirational but operational. The circular economy is no longer a slogan; it becomes a framework supported by institutions, metrics, reports, and corporate partnerships.
The data she cites—87% landfill or incineration, 1% recycled—is used to argue that failure is systemic, not behavioural. Consumers are not the main problem; the system was never designed for garments to return.
Her three-point roadmap is critical because it aligns directly with later case studies:
safe and renewable inputs, higher-quality and repairable garments, and products designed from the outset for reintegration into the system. Innovation, in this context, is framed as a moral absurdity if it continues to generate waste by design.
Evrnu: Change Begins Where the System Gets Ugly
Stacy Flynn’s story is not a tale of idealism but of rupture. She is not an outsider condemning the industry; she is a seasoned insider whose faith in global manufacturing collapses when she encounters its lowest-cost reality.
The contrast between pristine factories and hazardous subcontractors is intentional. The author wants to show that price pressure externalises harm, pushing it into invisible spaces. Flynn’s reckoning is quantitative as much as ethical: she realises how much material she has helped put into circulation—and therefore into future landfills.
Her response is not advocacy but systems training. By studying sustainable systems and identifying polyester and cotton as the dominant fibres, she isolates the real leverage points: upstream extraction and downstream waste. Evrnu’s mission—to regenerate fibre at the molecular level from discarded garments—is therefore framed as a direct attack on both ends of the chain.
Most importantly, Evrnu’s defining principle is not sustainability but future disassembly. Materials are designed to come apart again. This is where the narrative becomes uncompromising. When brands demand elastane because “70% of garments use it,” Flynn refuses—not because it is unpopular, but because it cannot be regenerated. Constraint forces innovation, eventually leading to a recyclable stretch fibre. Circularity is treated as a non-negotiable design condition, not a preference.
Worn Again: From Upcycling to Chemical Closure
The transition to Worn Again introduces a harsher critique of popular “eco-fashion.” Turning waste into novelty products—jackets from balloons, accessories from uniforms—does not solve the problem if those items still become waste later.
Worn Again’s ambition is chemical separation at scale: breaking blended fabrics back into their original components and rebuilding them as virgin-equivalent materials. The author emphasises a crucial commercial insight articulated by Craig Cohon: system change only happens if costs align with existing markets. Circular materials must match virgin materials in price, quality, and performance, or they will remain peripheral.
This logic explains why partnerships with H&M, Kering, and chemical engineering firms are not compromises but necessities. The author explicitly endorses Stella McCartney’s doctrine of infiltration: change does not occur by rejecting industry power, but by embedding new rules within it.
Infrastructure Matters as Much as Technology
The visit to Fashion for Good serves as a narrative synthesis. Innovation alone is insufficient without platforms that connect start-ups, brands, investors, regulators, and the public. Education, acceleration, certification, and public engagement are framed as missing infrastructure layers.
Cyndi Rhoades sitting in the museum space—reviewing interviews, meeting development teams—embodies this transition. The author’s closing judgement, “this is real progress,” refers not to a single technology but to the emergence of an ecosystem capable of sustaining systemic change.
The Author’s Underlying Position
Throughout this section, the author advances a quiet but firm thesis:
the future of fashion is not primarily about aesthetics, nor even about new materials, but about resource governance.
True circularity requires:
- fewer garments produced,
- longer garment lifespans through repair and care,
- and materials that can re-enter the system without loss.
Technology helps, but only when paired with behavioural change, industrial alignment, and institutional support. The return to “square one” is therefore a reminder that the most radical innovation in fashion may be redesigning what happens before production begins and after consumption ends.
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