Welcome to The Orchestrate Project
A British Academy of Management (BAM) funded initiative dedicated to exploring and understanding the UK’s circular fashion ecosystems. Our mission is to map these evolving systems, uncover their dynamics, and drive progress toward a more sustainable future for fashion.
Our Focus
Circular fashion and sustainable textiles in the UK
Our Goal
Map and understand the ecosystem of organisations working on circularity
Our Output
Research and Evidence Building for Circular Fashion Ecosystems in the UK
What Is Circular Fashion?
Circular fashion is an alternative to the traditional linear fashion system (take-make-waste). It aims to keep materials in use through design for longevity, repairability, reuse, recycling, and regenerative practices. In a circular system, waste becomes a resource, and collaboration is key.
Why Ecosystem Mapping?
Transitioning to circularity requires orhestrated action across many sectors , including brands, policy makers, designers, recyclers, community initiatives, academia, and more. By mapping the UK’s fashion and textile ecosystem, Orchestrate helps identify who is doing what, where the gaps are, and how better collaboration can be achieved.
Our Research Approach
We use mixed and multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary methods to explore the relationships, innovations, and orchestrate mechanisms within the UK’s circular fashion space:
- Literature review ~ scoping review of circular ecosystem literature with over 90 articles demonstrating the roles different actors take as well as the specific role for orchestrators
- Interviews with ~50 ecosystem actors (designers, startups, NGOs, policymakers, academics, industry)
- Document analysis (strategy reports, funding applications, policies)
- Media content analysis and secondary database generation using IE podcast and social media posts.
- Ecosystem mapping using software like NVivo and visual systems tools
- Thematic analysis to uncover patterns and drivers of orchestration
We frame our research using the concept of ecosystem orchestration — exploring how shared goals, trust, and coordination are built across diverse actors.
ToolKits
Get Involved
Are you working in circular fashion in the UK? We’d love to hear from you. Whether you’re a startup, researcher, policymaker, brand, or community organiser, your perspective matters. Get in touch with one of the principal investigator on the ORchetrate project Tulin Dzhengiz; [email protected] or Alaa Abed; [email protected].