How fashion pays lip service to sustainability, while still creating toxic pollution and carbon
- Fashion shows may feature ‘green’ themes or pontificate about sustainability, but the reality is very different
- Luxe labels accuse fast fashion brands such as H&M of being polluters, but high-end brands are just as bad
Paris fashion fortnight began last week with an apocalyptic warning.
“Our Mother Earth will not be able to support life, we will not be able to breathe … If we don’t open our hearts and our minds, it’s the end,” a disembodied voice intoned as hot Hollywood label Rhude made its Paris debut.
The very next show, Phipps’ “Treehugger, Tales of the Forest”, was teased on Instagram with pictures of rescued koalas from the Australian wildfires.
It was another sign that fashion now sees itself on the climate change front line.
But when we questioned Rhude designer Rhuigi Villasenor backstage, he admitted there was nothing sustainable about his collection. He had found the stirring speech on the internet the day before, and didn’t know who had made it. But he insisted his clothes were “timeless” and would “live through ages and trends”.