Responsible Luxury: Refashioning Luxury Goods Through Co-Creation

Sustainable fashion in all its guises, has been the preoccupation of many a recent campaign, article, research and initiative. Not only is the industry increasingly aware of the need to cut its environmental impact, but also consumers and consumer organisations are putting pressures on various parts of the supply chain to comply with environmental and ethical practices. Yet, from a management perspective, the economic impact of these demands can lead to conflicting priorities. In particular, the basic marketing concept of product lifecycle indicates the product’s gradual diminishing monetary returns through time. In this paper we will be analysing a case of a refashioning of products that are either obsolete or unsalable and making a commercially viable collection. In 2008 MCM collaborated with the London College of Fashion to reuse, recycle and redesign a number of end-of-line, dated handbags into new objects of desire with a new lifecycle. This case will form a basis of analysing the validity of such a product re-development tactic for other luxury brands. The paper will provides a blueprint for future re-fashioning initiatives by reflecting on the value inherent in the process for both users and firms alike. The paper contributes to the understanding of recycling and sustainable fashion from a theoretical perspective that links together the product lifecycle, co-creation and value creation theories. The main theoretical implication of the work concerns the framing of recycling and refashioning with the context of those linked concepts.According to this contribution, refashioning can enable value creation from obsolete products, especially if a co-design with consumers or users forms part of the proposition. On the managerial side, this study recognisees the economic drivers of business and highlights the commercial, not only environmental and societal benefits of recycling within the luxury sector. The recycled products stand in direct opposition to counterfeiting, which is evident in the uniqueness for refashioned products leading to the development of new objects of desire.