A key example is Bengaluru-based D2C menswear brand, Snitch, which integrated sustainable fashion platform Relove into its website in 2024. With this partnership, the brand allows its customers to resell used Snitch articles and buy authenticated pre-owned ones. Similarly, One Less is designing single‑fibre basics with a planned buy‑back scheme in the pipeline that nudges the brand into a closed‑loop system.

Some brands are good examples of sustainable, upcycling-led design, but they are still only partly circular. This is because they mainly focus on reusing waste before selling products or on recycling textile waste collected from different sources. Some key examples in this space are Doodlage, Iro Iro, Parichay (by Vigya Crafts), IndieJeanous, and Neeman’s, among others.

India’s circular fashion, projected to grow to around $1.6 Bn by 2033 from $272.51 Mn in 2024, is still figuring out how to scale. However, this growth has a few visible stumbling blocks. Today, brands talk about take‑back programmes, pre‑owned collections, and repair‑it‑for‑life campaigns, but these initiatives often remain limited to pilots, Instagram experiments, and city‑specific.

On the consumer side, while circular fashion is gaining some traction due to Gen Z’s value-conscious buying habits and love for ‘thrifting’, it still faces challenges around factors like trust, hygiene, and quality. “Today, circular fashion in India is still more ecosystem-led than brand-led. Third-party recommerce and thrift-led resale are seeing the most visible traction, especially among Gen Z consumers.

But this momentum is largely fragmented and driven by platforms rather than integrated into brand operating models,” said Amar Nagaram, cofounder & CEO, VIRGIO, a circular fashion brand. Nagaram is a former CEO of Myntra. The Circular Versus Sustainable Debate Most Indians use the terms ‘sustainable’ and ‘circular’ interchangeably in fashion.

Sustainable fashion focuses on how a product is made: better fabrics, lower emissions, ethical sourcing, and local production. Circular fashion, on the other hand, focuses on what happens after — the reuse, resale, repair, recycling, and systematic extension of a garment’s life. This distinction matters because India has already seen a wave of sustainable D2C brands emerge over the past decade.

Many focus on organic cotton, low‑impact dyes, or conscious storytelling. But circularity requires brands to stay involved even after the first sale — building systems for returns, resale, refurbishment, or recycling. That is where things get complicated.

Different circular models are progressing at very different speeds in India. Take‑back programmes are emerging, but most remain in pilot mode. Repair is deeply embedded in Indian culture, but largely informal and unbranded.

Rental works in niche use cases, like weddings or events, but not yet as everyday consumption. Material‑to‑material recycling is still at an early stage and far from commercial scale. Resale is currently the strongest entry point because it aligns with existing digital behaviour and requires relatively lower operational investment from brands.

Platforms like curated luxury‑resale marketplaces and upcycling labels such as Doodlage and Iro Iro are giving circularity a visible face. “Circular models are retention levers. Most founders and investors see them as ways to improve customer lifetime value and repeat behaviour through mechanisms like exchanges, credits, or resale participation,” said VIRGIO’s Nagaram.

Circular Fashion’s Real Inflexion Point According to Alvarez & Marsal’s managing director Mani Singhal, the first real scale opportunity in this area of circular fashion emerges from resale, repair, refurbishment, deadstock monetisation, and more organised reverse flows — and not from advanced recycling alone. “The near‑term inflexion point is less about a futuristic circular model and more about building commercially viable pathways to extend product life and recover value,” Singhal said. Circularity will become a baseline expectation only when it starts making business sense across the value chain, not just as a sustainability story.

For most fashion players, the turning point will come when circularity is seen as a way to improve inventory productivity, recover value from returns and excess stock, and boost customer engagement, rather than just as a brand‑story lever. Once circularity is linked to economics, not just ethics, adoption will accelerate. To get there, the ecosystem needs stronger trust mechanisms, better reverse logistics and sorting infrastructure, and product design built for longevity and repair. Circular fashion will remain niche as long as it is treated as an alternative; it w