Common Threads Round Up #12

New year, same fashion news round-ups, but with a little bit more yapping on our part :)

Jan 07, 2025

🗓️ Tuesday, January 7th 2025

Source: WSJ

🔮 12 Trends That Will Be Everywhere In 2025, According To Fashion Creators - Refinery 29 (A little prediction from us for 2025 too)

So this article isn’t about sustainability, but this piece (as well as the many other trend forecasting pieces that were on pretty much every site like Teen Vogue, Glamour, Town and Country) got us thinking about the media landscape. Digital media has changed a lot over recent years and with a lot of print media shuttering, sites have looked for alternative ways to bring in cash. Affiliate and collecting commission has been the answer for many of them, but this method inherently pushes more consumption than let’s say a thought piece on a designer’s collection does. The goal of these pieces are literally ‘buy, buy, buy’ and while supplying very convenient links you can buy from.

Something we’re keeping our eyes on is what an alternative is to this - publications aren’t incentivized to push resale platforms because on those sites there are usually just 1 piece, they can’t drive massive amounts of sales from that. We think 2025 is ripe for disruption on this topic in the media - Vogue UK did a round-up of vintage trends for 2025 which was a fresh take on the trends for the year storyline, and sites like Phia help people find secondhand alternatives to new items. We’d love to see a publication take on a goal of promoting a certain % of resale items this year.

👕 How a $12.98 T-Shirt Is Made in America—at a Profit - WSJ

Made in America and American manufacturing are about to be big topics of the next 4 years (we think so, at least). This is an interesting look into how American Giant adjusted their supply chain and manufacturing process to make clothes that fit Walmart’s pricing targets.

👗 Textile Exchange tackles fashion’s last climate taboo: Growth - Vogue Business

Recap from a new report published by the Textile Exchange highlights changes needed from brands and retailers and encourages them to ‘reimagine growth.’ It does seem like growth can be in opposition to sustainability, so this report aims to position the conversation as one of change, instead of ‘degrowth’, which can be scary to executives! Shout-out to Rachel Arthur for authoring this report and highlighting ways forward. Rachel also writes a great substack which you can read here.

♻️ 75 Hard Challenge for Fashion - Mandy Lee (@oldloserinbrooklyn on TikTok)

Just like how media continually pushes links on things to buy, we sometimes feel the same about creators. Which is why it’s refreshing to see people to do things a little differently - Mandy Lee on TikTok did the ‘75 hard’ challenge last year which encourages people to shop their closets, get dressed every day, and not buy anything. It’s a fun way to start off the new year and rediscover what you already own.

🏭 Why Kantamanto Market’s Fiery Destruction Could Leave Sustainable Fashion Up in Smoke - Yahoo

A fire tore through Ghana’s Kantamanto Market at the start of the year, a hub for secondhand clothing, destroying countless livelihoods in a space already burdened by the global fashion industry’s waste. The market was a showcase of a true circular economy, turning waste into useful products like mops and laptop stands despite minimal resources. It’s also a "final sink" for poor-quality fast fashion from the Global North. It’s a stark reminder that when fashion overproduces, it’s often the Global South that pays the price—in flames, no less.

♻️ Why Brick-and-Mortar Resale Is Flourishing - BOF

Some good news for the resale market - it’s booming! While a lot of focus has been on the online secondhand market, IRL stores are crushing it.

That’s it for now! Until next week 🤙

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