Fashion week is driven by newness — it’s what makes the biannual gathering so exciting. However, the four weeks of international and intercity travel across New York, London, Milan and Paris take a huge toll on the environment, what with all the carbon emissions, single-use products and other waste created. In recent seasons there’s been a shift towards more conscious engagement with the machine, which has, paradoxically, made this fixation on newness feel a little passé.
During September's spring/summer 2025 shows, eBay hosted two secondhand runways — one in London, another in New York — where models wore pre-loved designer items like Chopova Lowena tartan skirts, Mulberry handbags and Wales Bonner x Adidas streetwear. The shows were livestreamed to the public, with the products available to shop immediately. “Putting pre-loved on the catwalk is just one way we’re helping to change the perception of what is aspirational in fashion,” Kirsty Keoghan, eBay’s general manager of global fashion, tells Refinery29, noting that roughly £40 billion worth of secondhand luxury products were sold on the resale platform last year. (eBay has also found that 66% of Gen Z consumers agree that buying secondhand clothing has grown in personal importance.)
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This is only the latest example of organisations using the runways to platform climate consciousness. Off-schedule during London Fashion Week, Oxfam and Vinted staged their own secondhand runway, while east London initiative Fuck Fast Fashion organised shows with over 20 vintage sellers in public venues. This past spring, activists, stylists and advertisers including Desierto Vestido, Fashion Revolution Brazil and Artplan came together to put on a catwalk in Chile’s Atacama desert, one of the world’s largest fashion landfills, to highlight the devastation of textile waste. Meanwhile, Copenhagen Fashion Week has instituted a Sustainability Action Plan, which obliges participating designers to follow certain requirements, like the restriction of virgin fur and single-use props.
Helen Kirkum, a London-based artist and designer who creates trainers and handbags out of post-consumer waste, hosted a dinner during London’s September shows as a way to further the conversation during fashion’s biggest moment. “Seasons are just a construct for brands to create newness,” she tells Refinery29. “If you actually think about how we wear products, we’re not just like, Quick, let's get rid of all our summer clothes now that it’s September. Everything's transitional, and everything kind of works together.”
Kirkum’s event brought together a variety of industry insiders — journalists, brand owners, buyers, investors — who are usually separated by the chaos of Fashion Month. This was intentional, to build thoughtful community and meaningful discourse around a pressing topic, as her eponymous brand has always aimed to do.
“Our ethos is always about how we can use our products to help tell stories about the issues within fashion, but also to make products that are desirable and aren't necessarily made from something new,” she says.
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Lydia Bolton, a designer who works in upcycling, believes that Fashion Month can learn a lot by moving away from traditional show formats, which require a lot of energy and people power (and thus produce loads of emissions and waste). She was at Kirkum’s dinner and also hosted her own event during the week, where she led a workshop in making bag charms out of scrap textiles and offcuts, inspired by Oxfam’s popular Secondhand September initiative.
“We can have a more sustainable mindset towards clothing when we connect with how long things take to make and the actual processes involved,” she says. “It's great having more sustainability as part of fashion week because it should be platformed in equal spaces.”
We’re also beginning to see brands that haven’t historically engaged with the subject of sustainability weave these values into their seasonal newness. Cristian Siriano showed looks made from recycled textile waste in New York, Versace presented brooches made from recycled plastic bottles in Milan, and Rokh crafted floral appliques with shredded deadstock.
“I think there's definitely a place for fashion week but the things I always look for are what people are doing that feels inspiring — in terms of new materials and sustainable growth rather than just new silhouettes,” Kirkum adds.
There’s no escaping the fact that fashion is a multibillion-pound industry but these creators and brands are challenging the status quo and indicating important mindset shifts. So while another Fashion Month may be done and dusted, the future is now.