North Face is designing garments with their entire life cycle in mind. The focus is on extending the product’s lifespan and finding new purposes for it when it’s finally beyond use. Interacting with worn-out clothes helps designers see parts of garments that tend to break or tear first, so designers will now reinforce these parts. Among the pieces from the line is a kimono sweater made from an old puffer coat. It’s chic, with clean lines, giving new life to a garment that would have ended up in the trash.

Circularity is a movement devoted to keeping clothes out of landfills. When it comes to the fashion industry, this involves wearing garments longer, repairing them when they are damaged, then repurposing or recycling them when they have reached the end of their life. Many brands are shifting toward this model. Since 2000, the average number of times a consumer wears an item before throwing it away has dropped by 36 per cent. Many people use a garment only eight to ten times before throwing it. These habits are contributing to the destruction of the environment. Every year, 85 per cent of all textiles produced end up in landfills or the ocean. Since most clothes are made from plastic-based synthetic fibers, these garments might take hundreds of years to decompose.