Chapter 5 — full chapter
5.3 Building the circular story
A circular story gives verified information a human, practical or systemic context. The starting point is not “what sustainability message do we want to tell?”, but which aspect of the product, service or initiative is most meaningful to the audience and best supported by evidence.
That story angle may focus on the material and construction of a product, the process through which it was made or recovered, the people and skills involved, the experience of using and caring for it, or its role within a wider circular system. Different angles can make the same underlying information more relevant without changing its meaning.
The following subsections explore how to select an appropriate story angle, translate it into a coherent visual language and use fashion’s aspirational power to reinforce longer-term value.
RESOURCE INSIGHT: Green Marketing in the Fashion Industry: A Critical Analysis of Sustainability Narratives — Journal of Marketing Management, 2024. This academic study deconstructs sustainability narratives in the communications of 41 fashion stores to ask how “eco-friendliness” is constructed — and whose interests the story serves. It cautions that sustainability is often framed to flatter the industry; circular stories should be tested for whether they advance change or merely polish the brand. Source: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10253866.2024.2440557