Specials

Guatemala’s largest secondhand clothing retailer, Megapaca, sits at the heart of a national reuse system that challenges prevailing ideas about circular fashion. From ropa cruda flows to fibre recovery through NovaFiber, its model shows how commercial scale, redistribution networks and data-backed transparency can extend garment lifespans and deliver circular results where public systems remain fragile.

The growing ease of online returns is redrawing the map of fashion logistics. What began as a customer service feature has become an environmental liability, adding distance, fuel use, and waste to every transaction. The system built for convenience now defines how much carbon fashion sends back into circulation, a new study has pointed out.

In Guatemala’s crowded ropa cruda markets, women dominate the trade, running stalls that support households in an economy where informality exceeds 70%. Surveys reveal their ownership, participation and wages outpace national averages, forcing a reconsideration of how circular value is defined — and who benefits when discarded garments gain a second life.

The textile industry’s circular transition hinges on how materials move between loops — from repair and reuse to remanufacture and recycling. A new mapping of “cascading circularity” reveals how companies relink fibres, technologies, and policies to extend value chains and slow waste flows, offering clues to where the system still breaks down.

Guatemala’s secondhand clothing industry is frequently portrayed abroad as little more than dumping. Field surveys show otherwise: almost nine in ten imports are reused, while waste remains limited. Unsorted ropa cruda powers markets, creates work, and sustains women traders. As new rules emerge, the fight is over who defines—and controls—circularity.

Saudi Arabia’s growing ambitions in fashion and textiles took centre stage at the 3rd Saudi Fashiontex Expo in Jeddah. The event brought together participants from 25 countries, highlighting the Kingdom’s push to align creativity, trade, and sustainability. Steering this transformation is Filiz Karakul, Managing Director of event organiser Pyramid Group, who explains how the platform is helping redefine Saudi Arabia’s role in the global textile landscape.

From bootstrapped beginnings to a ₹230 crore powerhouse, the True Colors story is far from over. Having mastered the art of resilience, the company is now writing its next chapter — one defined by expansion, innovation, and self-reliance. This is the second and concluding part of the story.

From borrowed ₹4 lakh at a 10x15 feet leased basement to a sweeping 2,00,000 square feet with a turnover of around ₹230 crore, Surat-headquartered True Colors Ltd delivers a vertically integrated ecosystem for digital fabric printing, from machinery to sublimation paper, inks, printing services and countrywide support. Read the journey of a start-up as it navigated the choke points to emerge as a cutting force with a country wide imprint.

The controversy surrounding Copenhagen Fashion Week’s greenwashing complaint marked a defining moment for global fashion. Beyond Denmark’s borders, it exposed deep fissures between image and integrity in sustainability narratives. As Europe tightens laws and activists demand accountability, the episode signalled that credibility—not creativity—will define the industry’s next chapter in sustainability storytelling.

For years, Copenhagen Fashion Week was lauded as a model of ethical transformation, blending Scandinavian aesthetics with moral purpose. But in 2025, the same event found itself in the dock, accused of greenwashing and exaggerating its eco-claims. The controversy exposed deep cracks in how fashion markets virtue, regulation, and credibility on the global stage.