In 2023, of the 3.25 billion items placed on the French market, over one billion were lingerie products. With complex materials, recycling disruptors, and hygiene-related barriers, many challenges must be overcome to extend the lifespan of lingerie and reduce its environmental impact. Yet, solutions do exist to make this sector more sustainable—through repair, reuse, and recycling.
In this spirit, Refashion launched the Lingerie Collective in 2024, an initiative designed to support marketers in adopting sustainable and innovative practices, reimagining the future of lingerie through the lens of the circular economy.
The Lingerie Collective: A Broad Network of Stakeholders
The Lingerie Collective is the result of a year-long reflection led by a working group of 11 lingerie brands (Etam Group, Wolf Lingerie, Kiabi, DIM, Ysé Paris, Simone Pérèle, Chantelle Group, Auchan, Eminence Group, RougeGorge, and Princesse Tam Tam), enriched by the input of two industry experts: Fédération de la Maille, de la Lingerie et du Balnéaire, and IFTH (French Institute of Textiles and Clothing).
To support their reflections, 11 textile repair specialists and 13 players from the downstream value chain (sorting and recycling operators) were consulted to identify opportunities and overcome barriers.
Understanding Consumer Needs and Expectations
The brands part of the Lingerie Collective conducted a survey among their customers to better understand their expectations and the barriers to repair. This survey also explored the reasons lingerie items reach end-of-life, consumer habits regarding collection, and their perception of recycled materials.
With over 18,250 respondents, the survey revealed key trends and offered valuable insights for building solutions.
Key takeaways
Repairing to expand lifespan:
Long considered too complex to repair, lingerie is now proving it too can embrace repairability. But how do we build a real repair market, remove obstacles, and meet consumer expectations?
To provide concrete answers, the Lingerie Collective carried out an in-depth investigation: identifying common defects, consulting repair experts, and analyzing customer expectations.
The result? The identified barriers —technical complexity, hygiene concerns, and perceived cost— are far from insurmountable.
Good news: lingerie is repairable! And starting in 2025, it will be eligible for the Repair Bonus in France. This major step forward paves the way for a new era in the sector, where product longevity becomes a true engagement driver for both brands and consumers.
Reuse and recycle:
What solutions exist to add value to end-of-life items and overcome the challenges of second-hand and recycling?
Too often, worn or unused underwear ends up in the trash, excluded from reuse channels due to lack of awareness or the intimate nature of the products. Yet lingerie holds real potential for reuse and recycling.
The Collective conducted an analysis to map end-of-life lingerie flows and identify the challenges to be addressed: low collection rates, diverse materials, and the presence of recycling disruptors.
By engaging industry stakeholders and surveying consumers, several levers have been identified to give these products a second life.
Favorable findings
Indeed, lingerie repair proves to be a key lever in extending product lifespan and embedding this habit in consumer behavior. It fully aligns with a circular economy approach, helping reduce the sector’s environmental footprint and offering a more responsible alternative.
As for recycling, despite the currently insufficient collection levels, end-of-life lingerie streams are noted for their high-quality materials, making them particularly attractive. These characteristics have sparked interest among collectors and sorters, who see lingerie as a promising “premium resource.”
So, what's next?
The new specifications of the eco-organization set major goals to speed up the shift toward a more circular fashion model.
By 2028, the aim is to double the collection rate from 30% to 60% of products placed on the French market, and to reach 80% recycling of non-reusable textiles, home linens, and shoes by 2027. An even more ambitious target applies to items containing synthetic plastic materials: a 90% recycling rate.
Expanding collection: a key lever
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Deploying new collection points, essential for gathering more waste and supporting reuse and recycling supply chains.
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Encouraging experimentation and collaboration along the entire value chain: join calls for projects and explore the Recycle platform
Structuring and boosting repair:
In line with these ambitions, the sector aims to increase repair activities by 35% by 2028. To achieve this, several concrete actions are being rolled out, notably through the Repair Fund:
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Opening the Repair Bonus to lingerie items from 2025 — a true catalyst for developing this service.
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Structuring a lingerie repair ecosystem connecting brands and repairers to build a viable and dynamic market.
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