To tackle global sustainability challenges of the Fashion Industry and ensure longterm viability, companies have slowly started integrating circular approaches. This paper explores if and how fashion designers can aid the transition towards a circular economy. For this purpose, 15 interviews with ten fashion designers working in This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/ 4.0/), which permits noncommercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.

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In the EU, a programme for implementing a circular approach to the Lifestyle and Fashion Industry dealing with the resource challenges of the massive textile-production has been launched. Thus, the industry faces a need for circular and closed-loop approaches and will be challenged in developing and recruiting internal competencies for making the transition from linear to circular production possible. This article explores the assumption of an existing gap between academia -(the fashion designer's roles and potential theories and models) and compares it with the actual practice of the designer's roles in circular transitional processes in the industry. Using a mixed-method approach, combining quantitative with qualitative research methods, this study investigates the actual roles; practice, reality, and performance of the designers in the field of circular design (CD) practice, its relation to the educational background and the designer's circular competences. It reveals huge gaps between theory and practice and an accumulated frustration among the designers on both having a) a lack of mandate order to execute the circular economy (CE) principles, and b) a need for new competences in the business. The paper finally suggests how to use the research when developing Education for Sustainable Development with a focus on design.