Fashion Upcycling and the Human Right to a Healthy Environment: Trademark Protection Thwarting Sustainable Reuse?

With new col­lec­tions each sea­son, the fash­ion indus­try pro­duces a high­ly prob­lem­at­ic fash­ion garbage heap every year. Cir­cu­lar econ­o­my projects seek­ing to pro­duce »new« gar­ments by rework­ing sec­ond hand and unsold fash­ion items have par­tic­u­lar soci­etal val­ue against this back­ground. Evi­dent­ly, legal solu­tions that sup­port fash­ion reuse have par­tic­u­lar rel­e­vance in the light of these goals.