Naomi Campbell’s PrettyLittleThing collaboration leaves fans shocked

Naomi Campbell, one of the most iconic supermodels of all time, has blindsided fans with the announcement of an “embarrassing” collaboration.

Naomi Campbell, one of the most iconic supermodels of all time, has blindsided fans with the announcement of her upcoming collaboration with fast fashion juggernaut, PrettyLittleThing.

The 53-year-old, who has modelled for everyone from Prada and Yves Saint Laurent to Valentino and Burberry, was teased as the retailer’s latest partner in a clip on its Instagram account on Friday.

“PrettyLittleThing Designed by Naomi Campbell. Coming soon,” the caption read. The footage showed a director’s chair with Campbell’s name on it, with the collaboration believed to have come about by way of her friendship with former PLT CEO Umar Kamani.

That one of fashion’s biggest names would endorse an organisation associated with so much alleged misconduct has, rightfully, received significant backlash.

“One of the most respected supermodels collabing with an unethical brand that steals designs from small businesses, how embarrassing,” one user commented on PLT’s post.

Naomi Campbell has shocked fans with news of her upcoming collaboration with PrettyLittleThing. Picture: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images

“This is so disappointing … had much higher expectations of Naomi,” wrote another.

“The lengths that you guys go to to make your disposable plastic unethically-made garments more appealing …” commented someone else.

Over on Twitter, it was a similar story.

“A high fashion model for a fast fashion IG influencer online boutique??!! How do you go from Valentino to PLT? I HAVE QUESTIONS THAT NEED ANSWERS,” one person tweeted.

While another wrote: “She’s worth $80mil, and now creating with a brand that purposefully and continuously keeps garment workers in poverty.”

“Is this just proof that the whole sustainable fashion system is so unattainable that we’ve pretty much given up/decided it’s not our problem to fix?” tweeted a third person.

“We’re all guilty of turning a blind eye but this feels … like a turning point lol.”

'PrettyLittleThing Designed by Naomi Campbell. Coming soon.' Picture: Instagram

‘We’re all guilty of turning a blind eye but this feels … like a turning point.’ Picture: Mike Coppola/Getty Images/AFP

Reaction to the collaboration is not dissimilar to that of last year, when Kourtney Kardashian Barker became the first-ever “sustainability ambassador” of PrettyLittleThing’s parent company, the fast-fashion e-tailer Boohoo.

While the reality star doesn’t hold quite the same level of esteem in the industry as Campbell, the irony of both her appointment and the role itself was flagged by dozens of fair fashion campaigners, including Venetia La Manna, who called it “peak fashion greenwashing”.

“Private-jetting @kourtneykardash has been announced as the ‘sustainability ambassador’ for fossil fuel fast fashion brand @boohoo,” La Manna wrote in a post on Instagram at the time.

A private-jetting Kardashian worth $65 million is now "sustainability ambassador" for fossil fuel fashion brand boohoo, where she'll chat "with sustainability experts to better understand challenges and opportunities in the fashion industry." We absolutely KANNOT. pic.twitter.com/cmI8zwB3ui

— Venetia La Manna (@venetialamanna) September 6, 2022

“Kardashian Barker – who was publicly outed for overusing water in a drought – is to host a series of interviews with ‘sustainability experts’ to discuss the ‘challenges’ and ‘opportunities’ that the fashion industry faces.

“There was the ‘opportunity’ for this celebrity worth $65 million to turn down this contract and instead give a platform to what truly sustainable and ethical fashion looks like (spoiler alert: not boohoo).”

Boohoo, founded in Manchester in 2006, is one of the pioneers of the “ultra-fast-fashion” retail phenomenon, geared toward the Instagram and TikTok generation. A 2020 investigation by British newspaper The Sunday Times revealed that not only was the e-tailer’s output unsustainable; workers at a factory in Leicester that supplied their product were being paid as little as $4.40 an hour (the national living wage in Britain for ages 25 and above, at the time, was $10.93).

The Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, meanwhile, found that 49 per cent of Boohoo’s garments had been made from virgin plastics like nylon, acrylic and polyester. This is surely in direct opposition to Campbell’s Fashion for Relief efforts, which is committed to raising funds for environmental and humanitarian purposes.