Sustainable girl summer: What retailers can learn from Love Island and eBay’s resale partnership

By Inge Bujakiewicz-Baars, Head of Sustainability at ReBound Returns

This summer, sustainable fashion shared the spotlight with villa drama thanks to eBay’s partnership with Love Island, which put pre-loved clothing at the heart of one of the UK’s biggest television programmes. The partnership appeared to influence viewers too, with around a third of Love Island fans* saying the show made them more likely to buy pre-loved fashion. It’s not the only example of circular fashion taking centre stage on screen. Prime Video’s RE/style, a six-part design competition hosted by Emma Willis, challenges eight European designers to create runway looks using only second-hand clothing.

Together, these programmes suggest that circular fashion is becoming part of mainstream entertainment rather than a niche sustainability conversation. The question is whether this could be the summer that buying pre-loved becomes a more established consumer habit.

The rise of ‘sustainable girl summer’

Summer clothing is often among the most short-lived purchases in a wardrobe. Holiday outfits, festival looks and occasionwear are frequently bought for a single event before being forgotten, while social media continues to reinforce the idea that every occasion requires something new. By presenting pre-loved fashion as desirable rather than second best, Love Island has helped challenge those habits.

Turning interest into everyday behaviour

Creating interest is only the first step. The bigger challenge for retailers is converting growing consumer appetite for resale into services that are convenient enough for customers to use repeatedly.

A relationship with a customer does not need to end at the point of purchase. Branded resale, trade-in programmes, repair services, take-back schemes and rental all extend the life of products while helping retailers recover more value from existing inventory. They also provide greater visibility into how products perform throughout their lifecycle, offering valuable insight into durability, demand and customer behaviour.

The commercial case for these services is becoming stronger as regulation accelerates the shift towards circular retail. The EU’s Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) introduces new expectations around product durability, repairability, resource efficiency and the management of unsold goods. While implementation will develop over time, the direction of travel is clear: retailers will face increasing scrutiny over how products remain in use for longer and how value is recovered beyond the first sale.

Offering circular services, however, is only one part of the challenge. Consumers are unlikely to embrace resale, repair or take-back schemes if they are slower or more complicated than buying new. Retailers therefore need the operational infrastructure to support them, from reliable reverse logistics and consistent product grading to efficient repair networks and straightforward digital journeys that make participating in circular services simple.

Building on the trend

With TV shows increasing interest in pre-loved fashion, we are seeing how circular fashion can capture mainstream attention when it is presented in ways consumers genuinely want to engage with. For retailers, the opportunity now is to turn that cultural momentum into practical systems that make resale, repair and take-back part of everyday shopping. Those that make circular participation as easy as buying new will be better placed to keep products in use for longer while meeting changing consumer expectations and regulatory requirements.

Image courtesy of iStock. Supplied by ReBound Returns. 

*Data based on anecdotal feedback from Love Island superfans across Reddit forums and Facebook groups. One fan highlighted Jasmine’s outfit rewearing, while more than a third said they were more open to buying pre-loved clothing after seeing Islanders’ style.