Meet Serena Bonomi: Circular Economy Visionary Driving Systemic Change in Fashion

Bridging Innovation and Circularity

Hannah Rasekh: As a Circular Economy Innovation Consultant, how do you envision repair as a key pillar in the transition to a more circular fashion industry? Where do you see its potential for scalability across different market segments?

Serena Bonomi: I recently had a similar conversation about secondhand practices, and my perspective aligns closely with that discussion. Regardless of the business model, my vision is for a more cross-brand, industry-led approach. For example, when it comes to secondhand items or repairs, it’s uncommon for customers to engage with a specific brand for each product they own. If I have a pair of Levi’s, I might go directly to Levi’s for their services since they now offer them. But in general, a multi-brand solution is far more appealing to customers because it’s a convenient, one-stop-shop solution. Scalability can only be achieved if brands realise they need to go beyond just servicing their own products. They should eventually offer services for multiple categories or even other brands’ products. Of course, it’s complex to start there, but that’s the direction we need to aim for.

From my experience, scalability is challenging if the right marketing isn’t in place, if customers aren’t aware the service exists, or if it’s unclear what products they can bring in. Additionally, when working with brands, I’ve noticed a tendency to focus only on their own products. While this makes sense from a logistical standpoint, it’s a major barrier to scalability for these types of initiatives. It’s unrealistic to operate in silos, where a brand only repairs its own products or specific categories. That’s a great starting point for managing the system’s complexity, but eventually, the goal should be to create a centralised hub where customers can go and have their needs met. Whether it’s repairing clothing, shoes, or even phones, the service provider doesn’t need to have all the expertise in-house. They can act as the main point of contact and coordinate with different vendors to handle the specialised tasks.

Consumer Behaviour and Repair Adoption

Hannah Rasekh: Repair services often rely on shifts in consumer behaviour. From your perspective, what strategies can brands and platforms like Save Your Wardrobe adopt to normalise repair and make it an appealing option for consumers?

Serena Bonomi: I think this is based on two things. First, there’s a perception of decay or wear as almost taboo, especially when it comes to luxury items. While everything on this planet inevitably deteriorates, people often expect durability to mean something will never wear out, which is completely unrealistic. Second, there’s this mistaken idea that positioning something as "sustainable" will automatically drive customer behaviour. From my perspective—and this is something I encourage the brands I work with to embrace—the focus shouldn’t be on sustainability as a selling point. Brands should fulfil their responsibility to be sustainable, but they don’t need to market it that way. Customers don’t really care about a service being part of a circularity initiative; what matters to them is convenience. Highlight the personal benefits—what they gain by repairing their item, the solution it provides, and how it improves their life. Framing it as having a positive impact on the planet often feels abstract and distant to customers, disconnected from their daily lives.

When it comes to changing consumer behaviour, it’s about meeting them where they are with a compelling hook that resonates. In the luxury sector, this challenge is compounded by concerns over brand value. In the secondhand market, for example, there’s often a belief that reselling an item diminishes the brand’s prestige. With repairs, similar struggles exist. For luxury items, it’s not just about potential damage to the brand’s reputation but also about whether a repaired item still holds the same value, especially if it doesn’t use original components or perfectly replicate its original state. Brands need to address this mindset internally. They must accept that all products eventually wear out and let go of the notion that they need to guard their brand image by preserving products as pristine forever. This is where cross-industry repair services become so important. Brands need to trust experts who are equally invested in maintaining a product's value and authenticity.

Overcoming Barriers, Building Trust, and Protecting Brand Integrity

Hannah Rasekh: That’s where I think the importance of providing spare parts comes in. That’s what we offer with our platform—a link for brands to deliver spare parts to dedicated service partners.

Serena Bonomi: That’s an extremely effective approach. For example, I recently shared on LinkedIn about how providing spare parts—especially for shoes—can make a huge difference. If customers can’t access parts to restore their product to its original state, it often becomes a barrier to repair. Brands need to think ahead: which parts should they stock and provide to ensure their products remain as authentic as possible? However, many brands hesitate to offer spare parts because of concerns that they might be misused. There’s a fear that these parts could end up in counterfeit products or be used to create items that don’t authentically represent the brand. I’ve encountered this issue firsthand. When I worked for VF, we had extensive discussions about this, especially for brands like Napapijri, which is one of the most counterfeited brands in their portfolio. It’s incredibly difficult to distinguish high-quality fakes, even for mid-tier items like €200 jackets. With luxury products, this challenge is magnified. Ultimately, it comes down to connecting three critical touchpoints: embracing repair services, building trust in cross-industry expertise, and strategically providing spare parts to maintain the integrity and value of the brand.

The Role of Technology in Repair

Hannah Rasekh: Technology is a significant enabler of circularity. How do you see digital tools, such as platforms like Save Your Wardrobe, driving accessibility and efficiency in repair and aftercare services?

Serena Bonomi: When we look at the lifecycle of a product, there are three key players: the brands who put the products on the market, the service providers who handle repairs, and the customers. Repair services play a crucial role in bridging these three worlds in multiple directions. However, what we often forget when creating these types of services is that we still approach them with a very linear mindset. The process is often thought of as simple: the customer brings in the product, we repair it, and then we return it. But in reality, there’s a complex system working behind the scenes that needs to be properly enabled for everything to function smoothly.

For example, when a repair request is made, it might trigger an automatic request for spare parts. This is a great example of how technology can help streamline the process. But technology can do much more than that. In the secondhand market, for instance, it could be used to assess the quality of a product through image recognition or pull historical information about the item from global databases. This could include details about when it was first purchased or its original specifications.

Collaboration Across the Ecosystem

Hannah Rasekh: Collaboration between brands, repair providers, and digital platforms is critical for circularity. How can brands better integrate repair partnerships into their business models while maintaining profitability and customer satisfaction?

Serena Bonomi: One of the biggest challenges we face is moving beyond the “brand-only” mindset. This is difficult but essential for achieving systemic change. No single brand can create circularity in isolation. As I often say, there’s no such thing as a circular product in a linear system, and there’s no circular brand in a linear economy. For circularity to work, everyone needs to participate. This is what makes the space so complex, but it also highlights why collaboration is so important. This collaboration requires rethinking how we approach confidentiality. It’s not about abandoning NDAs and protective measures entirely but rather redefining what needs to be protected versus what should be shared to drive progress and enable meaningful change.

When it comes to customer satisfaction, it’s incredibly challenging to inspire behavioural change or maintain consistent quality and service if only one brand is taking action. The same applies to business goals like profitability—these can’t be achieved without scale, and scale isn’t something a brand can achieve alone. What’s particularly interesting is how many systems we already have in our linear economy work well in that context. These systems don’t need to be discarded; they just need to be reimagined for circularity. For example, marketing in a linear economy is built on creating demand for new products. Much of what we produce isn’t actually needed—it’s made desirable through demand creation. What if we applied this same approach to circularity? Instead of creating demand for new products, we could focus on generating demand for services like repair or for circular business models. This shift could help us move closer to a system that prioritises sustainability and long-term value.

Cultural Barriers to Repair

Hannah Rasekh: Repair has different levels of cultural acceptance worldwide. What role do you think education and storytelling play in reshaping perceptions of repair as a desirable and valuable service?

Serena Bonomi: Repairing is such an important concept, but here in Europe—or at least in the countries I’ve worked with on repair services—there’s often a negative perception associated with it. Repairs are sometimes seen as something you do because you can’t afford to buy new, which creates a stigma around it. However, I believe we need more education to change this mindset. Repairing should be about wanting to maintain and care for something you love and cherish for longer. In previous generations, especially in Europe, it was normal to mend, repair, and maintain items. In fact, mending was sometimes considered part of the beauty of an item, as it added a story or history to it. This mindset was largely driven by necessity and economic reasons back then. Today, however, we could shift the focus to the concept of emotional durability—the attachment and connection we have to certain items.

Of course, we don’t have emotional durability with everything we own, but there are definitely some items where it can be a strong motivator. Repairing those items can help us cherish them even more, even if the repair changes their appearance slightly. It’s about valuing the repair process and seeing it as a way to enhance an item’s story and longevity.

I recently shared an example on LinkedIn about a pair of shoes I’ve had for over 15 years. The leather uppers still looked brand new, but the soles kept wearing out, so every few years, I’d have to get them resoled. Recently, they came back with a much thicker, chunkier sole that made them look more like mountain boots than the everyday boots I was used to wearing in the city. Initially, I was disappointed because they looked so different. But over time, I realised the new soles actually made the shoes more comfortable. This experience strengthened my emotional connection to the shoes. I already loved them because they were functional and comfortable, and I didn’t see any reason to replace them. But now, I appreciate them even more because the repair improved them in an unexpected way. It’s a great example of how repairs can not only maintain an item but also enhance it, making it even better than before.

In my culture, in Italy, there was also a strong emphasis on maintaining items rather than just repairing them. Maintenance is a completely different mindset. It’s proactive rather than reactive and removes the negative connotation that repair might carry as being tied to economic scarcity. For example, with leather shoes, you simply oil them every few months to keep them in good condition. This culture of care prevents them from needing repairs in the first place. I think that’s something we need to implement more broadly—building a culture of maintenance, where caring for our belongings becomes second nature.

Future Trends in Circular Fashion

Hannah Rasekh: Looking ahead, what trends or innovations in repair and care excite you the most? How can platforms like Save Your Wardrobe stay at the forefront of these developments to drive systemic change in the industry?

Serena Bonomi: I’m not sure if it’s a trend or more of an evolution I’ve observed over the years, but let’s call it a trend for simplicity’s sake. I remember when platforms like Save Your Wardrobe and other repair providers first started, the focus was primarily on connecting brands to repair providers. It was a very siloed process: the platform would take a product, ship it to someone who could fix it, and then return it to the customer. That was essentially the full extent of the service when these platforms first emerged. What excites me now is seeing how this is evolving into a more holistic system. As you mentioned, it’s no longer just about facilitating the repair; it’s about engaging with manufacturers, creating more comprehensive platforms, and even exploring solutions that go beyond a single industry. There’s so much potential for cross-pollination—not just in learning and implementing best practices, but also in materials and manufacturing processes.

Since going freelance, I’ve had the opportunity to work outside the fashion bubble, in sectors like electronics and transportation. It’s fascinating to see the overlaps. Yes, the suppliers may be different, but when you dig deeper, many elements—like the origins of materials—are connected. For instance, textiles often come from the same sources, regardless of the industry. This shift away from a siloed approach to a more interconnected and holistic way of working is really exciting. I think the next step is for brands to adopt this mindset as well. They need to step out of their own bubbles and understand how they fit into this larger system. I don’t mean to sound overly critical of brands—I actually don’t have anything against them—but this evolution requires them to take a broader view and embrace collaboration and integration beyond their traditional boundaries.

Key Takeaways from Serena Bonomi's Vision for Circular Fashion

• Cross-Brand Collaboration is Crucial: Scaling repair services requires multi-brand cooperation. Centralised hubs that offer repairs for products across multiple brands increase accessibility and convenience for customers.
• Consumer Behaviour Must Shift Toward "Convenience Over Circularity": To encourage adoption of repair services, brands must frame repair as a matter of convenience and personal benefit rather than sustainability.
• Technology is a Key Enabler: Digital tools, automated spare part requests, and product traceability systems can simplify repair processes and support a fully circular economy.
• Cultural Shifts are Essential: Repair must be seen as a proactive form of care rather than a reactive necessity. Brands should promote the value of maintenance and emotional durability to drive adoption.
• The Future Lies in Integrated Systems: The future of circular fashion lies in a shift from siloed services to holistic, cross-brand repair ecosystems, where service providers, brands, and platforms collaborate to streamline repair processes.

By embracing these principles, brands can unlock new growth opportunities, build stronger customer relationships, and lead the charge toward a circular, sustainable future for fashion.