Skip to main content
BoF Logo

Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.

How Fashion’s Business Model Is Wasteful by Design

Excess is built into the economics of the industry at every step of the value chain, writes Kenneth P. Pucker.
A pile of old clothes is stacked high on an avenue leading up to the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Vestiaire Collective has launched a campaign to draw attention to the waste created by the fashion industry. (Vestiaire Collective)

Late last month, smack dab in the middle of the Black Friday holiday shopping frenzy, Vestiaire Collective

Please sign in to ensure you can read our agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice. Or get in touch at support@businessoffashion.com if you experience difficulties.

Further Reading

Should Fashion Pay for Its ‘Waste Colonialism’?

Every year, millions of tons of old clothes are shipped around the world as part of the global secondhand clothing trade. Nonprofit The Or Foundation and Vestiaire Collective are lobbying for regulation that benefits the countries where they end up.

About the author
Kenneth Pucker

Kenneth Pucker is a contributing writer at The Business of Fashion. Pucker is an American writer and educator who specialises in sustainability.

© 2026 The Business of Fashion. All rights reserved. For more information read our Terms & Conditions

More from Sustainability
How fashion can do better for people and the planet.

Fashion Searches For a New Climate Solution

Coach-owner Tapestry’s new carbon-removal partnership and brands making fresh commitments to textile-to-textile recycling startups show an industry searching for ways to address its environmental impact.


view more
Latest News & Analysis
Unrivalled, world class journalism across fashion, luxury and beauty industries.

Who Won Fashion’s Red Carpet Season of Change

Sunday night’s Oscars concluded an awards season that fashion’s biggest labels used to show off their new creative game. BoF breaks down what we learned about brands’ celebrity strategies.


VIEW MORE
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
CONNECT WITH US ON