Refashioning: Accelerating Circular Design at Scale

The fashion industry remains a major contributor to environmental harm, still operating on a linear ‘take, make, waste’ model. While circular design is widely discussed, most frameworks are optional, theoretical, or fail to drive real adoption. This project addressed that gap by creating an industry-ready guide that translates complex principles into practical design actions and validated through commercial testing with a large Australian retail group. The challenge was to ensure the methodology was rigorous yet simple, scalable across businesses of any size, and capable of shifting design practice toward meaningful circular outcomes.

The solution is a first-of-its-kind, practical and open-source guide co-developed by a highly experienced team at RMIT University, A.BCH World, Julie Boulton Sustainability and Strategy, and piloted by Country Road Group. Based on nearly a decade of applied circular design practice at A.BCH, the methodology was refined and tested with Country Road Group brands while RMIT led the project research, evaluation and validation processes. The Refashioning team hosted workshops and design sprints, collaborated with commercial product teams, and streamlined the guide into a user-friendly format—supported by printable tools, digital downloads and implementation frameworks.

Since launching in 2025, the guide has been downloaded over 2,200 times across 38 countries and has been featured at major conferences. Piloted by Country Road Group and backed by Sustainability Victoria, it proved effective in commercial settings and created 7.4 million impressions through media coverage. The guide bridges sustainability ambition with practical design action, and is now being integrated into a national training program. It also inspired a follow-on collaboration resulting in a new software as a service (SaaS) tool that helps embed circular design into product development and scale systems change across the fashion industry.

Industry-Tested Methodology: Originated from A.BCH’s pioneering work in circular fashion, and adapted for commercial-scale use by Country Road Group. Modular and Practical: Structured into a step-by-step methodology, with printable worksheets, bill of materials templates, and planning tools for easy integration into design workflows. Designed by Industry, for Industry: Avoids jargon and complexity, and built with working designers, merchandisers and sustainability teams in mind. Validated Through Research: RMIT University led project monitoring, evaluation and academic validation, ensuring the methodology is both rigorous and usable. The research project was supported by the Circular Economy Innovation Fund as part of the Circular Economy Business Innovation Centre (CEBIC), delivered by Sustainability Victoria on behalf of the Victorian Government. Open Access: Freely available via refashioning.org, increasing access to circular design knowledge for students, SMEs and global fashion players alike. Scalable Vision: The guide was the groundwork for Quadrant Circular, a new software tool developed by A.BCH World and Style Atlas, designed to support traceability, supply chain engagement and circular product planning. Policy-Relevant: Informing the Seamless circular design national training programme - demonstrating the guide’s relevance at the systems level.