28 August, 2026

Fashion seems to be falling out of love with sustainability. After years of ambitious commitments, some of the industry’s biggest names are quietly scaling them back. Burberry has pushed its net zero target back by a decade. Under Armour dropped its target altogether. Nike has stopped publicly reporting on sustainability. All of this while the industry continues to produce around 92 million tonnes of waste every year, and global apparel consumption is projected to rise by 63% by 2030.

It would be easy to look at this and conclude that sustainability simply isn’t selling for fashion. But perhaps part of the problem is how we’ve been thinking about it. For years, sustainability has often sat outside the product itself: a target to meet, a report to publish or a capsule collection to launch. Meanwhile, what makes people want a product has remained largely the same: how it looks, how it feels, how well it’s made and how much they desire it.

For luxury in particular, this feels uncomfortable. We associate luxury with exceptional materials, skilled craftsmanship, provenance, rarity and products made to be treasured. Sustainability asks for many of the same things: better materials, greater traceability, longevity, less waste, and more repair and reuse. These aren’t competing ideas, because in many ways, they’re different ways of describing a better product.

A coat that lasts for decades is luxurious and less disposable. Knowing where a material comes from improves traceability while strengthening the story of craftsmanship behind it. Repair extends a product’s life while reinforcing its value, and producing fewer pieces can support the scarcity and exclusivity that luxury has always prized.

So perhaps the opportunity isn’t to find better ways of selling sustainability to consumers. It’s to recognise how naturally it can reinforce the qualities that already make luxury desirable. Luxury has always promised something better: better materials, better craftsmanship and products worth investing in. Perhaps sustainability isn’t a new promise for luxury to make, but a new way of delivering on the one it already has.

By Justine Bahoumina