This article was originally published in the Brand Finance Apparel 50 2026 report.
Global Head of
Strategic Services,
Brand Finance
For years I approached fashion with some ambivalence. I’ve always valued creativity and self-expression, but the focus on manufacturing desirability and volume growth without a considerate approach to sustainability sat uneasily with me. But after working with foundations, non-profit organisations and purpose led businesses in the sector, I came to see the industry differently: as one with real capacity to commit and transform itself, and to bring people along with it.
This year's Brand Finance Apparel 50 data suggests that commitment is very much alive, despite a wave of greenhushing in many sectors over the last few years. Second-hand fashion is forecast to ‘grow two to three times faster than firsthand sales through 2027’ (Fashion Brands Are Missing Out on the Resale Opportunity | BoF), reaching $317bn, with resale already accounting for around 28% of surveyed luxury shoppers' wardrobes (Fashion and Luxury Brands Can Win in Secondhand Market | BCG).
Half of luxury shoppers now check the resale market before buying new. McKinsey research finds that around 40% of Gen Z and Millennial shoppers rate a product's environmental impact as an extremely or very important factor in what they buy, nearly double the share among baby boomers, even if price and quality still come first for most (McKinsey, The State of Fashion 2023).
Here are five areas where sustainability has been driving innovation, engagement and creating value for brands in the sector.
1. Creatively making the most of what already exists
The most sustainable garment is often the one already in a wardrobe (or at a warehouse!).
Zara, which climbed two places in Brand Strength this year, has handed John Galliano the run of its archive in a landmark two-year partnership: rather than design from scratch, he is deconstructing and re-authoring past-season pieces into new seasonal collections, an industrial-scale way of getting fresh value from what a brand has already made; an instinct to keep clothes in use that luxury brands pioneered and that Patagonia and Decathlon — brands among the leaders on environmental sustainability perceptions in their home markets of the US and France, respectively according to Brand Finance Sustainability Perception Index 2026— have been extending into the mainstream.
2. Putting plants in the wardrobe
Researchers and designers continue to find fibres with real potential in citrus, apple, pineapple, fungi, coffee, bamboo and hemp, several of which also solve a waste problem by using by-products of food value chains that would otherwise be discarded.
Hermès' early work with mycelium-based leather alternatives showed how even the most heritage driven luxury houses are willing to test nature-based materials at a small scale, provided quality and craftsmanship are not compromised.
Hermès is no longer alone: Gucci has built sneakers from Demetra, its own leather alternative made from roughly 77% plant-based inputs; and even mass-market H&M has used grape-marc leather made from wine-industry waste in bags and shoes. But it’s worth cautioning that these solutions must be careful to not recreate the volume and resource pressures they set out to solve.
Despite common threads of innovation across Apparel brands, consumers tend to perceive luxury and fast fashion brands differently.
Players like Hermès and Gucci have sustainability perceptions across ESG above the apparel sector average in Brand Finance’s latest research, while brands like H&M and Zara have below-average perceptions, despite having above-average sustainability performance scores.
This ‘sustainability gap’ illustrates the opportunity for non-luxury brands who are taking demonstrable action on themes like materials innovation or circularity to communicate more about their efforts to boost perceptions of their sustainability.
3. Acting from a clear purpose and strong governance
The EU's rules banning the destruction of unsold goods took effect in July 2026 and are a reminder that governance is moving from voluntary commitment to hard requirement. With overproduction and unsold stock still a stubborn problem across the sector, sustainability and image conscious brands have to find more transparent routes to market for unsold inventory rather than quietly writing it off. That shift depends on brands knowing their own value chains well enough to be honest about their impact, beyond their stated good intentions.
Stricter regulatory changes can affect public norms, affecting expectations for corporate sustainability. For three consecutive years, Brand Finance research finds that respondents from European markets are significantly less likely to agree that a brand is committed to any of environmental, social, and governance sustainability, illustrating that the bar is higher for brands in the region when it comes to their commitments and actions.
4. Designing value chains within nature's limits
The industry produces somewhere between 80 and 150 billion garments a year, a volume nature cannot sustain indefinitely.
Good Growth, a business embedded in the heart of the cashmere value chain, is a clear example of an alternative business model built around ecological limits rather than volume targets: it adopts a landscape first model, built around a controlled number of pieces made from natural fibres sourced from the regions where the organisation works close to local communities.
Tariff pressure is also pushing fashion businesses to redesign their value chains for very different reasons: rising shipping costs and trade exposure are encouraging brands toward domestic and on demand production, a reshoring trend that, alongside its cost logic, quietly shortens value chains and reduces their environmental footprint.
5. Collaborating for impact at scale
Many of the challenges apparel faces, from opaque supply chains to human rights risks and shifting regulation, are still described by practitioners as too big to tackle alone. Pre-competitive collaborations remain an important route through this. A live example is the Apparel Alliance, which brings together Cascale (formerly the Sustainable Apparel Coalition), Textile Exchange, the ZDHC Foundation and the Apparel Impact Institute. In July 2026 the four bodies jointly published an updated Supply Chain Taxonomy, a shared framework they maintain together rather than each building their own.
The same logic applies to the tariff response reshaping sourcing decisions across the sector: brands, suppliers and even competitors are increasingly finding it easier to solve shared infrastructure problems together than separately.
Fashion's change of heart is not new but it’s not yet happening at the speed or depth the moment demands given scaling environmental challenges. But looked at through a brand value creation lens, the industry has real potential to recreate itself, and to bring its customers along with it.
