Fast fashion clogging landfill turns scrutiny on ‘green’ claims

Kourtney Kardashian is trying hard to convince the world — but it’s a tough sell.

A model walks in Boohoo X Kourtney Kardashian. Picture: Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for NYFW: The Shows

The mission to make fashion more sustainable may have bounds to go but the world at large has at least gotten better at decoding the logically incoherent marketing moves deployed by corporations in sustainability’s name.

Case in point: Kourtney Kardashian’s most recent sustainable clothing line released in collaboration with British fast fashion brand Boohoo – at which she also holds the tenuous title of “sustainability ambassador” – was met with a swift backlash. It includes 46 limited-edition pieces of clothing made from “recycled fibres, traceable cotton, recycled sequins and recycled polyester”, but it is difficult to glean any information about what percentage of items are recycled, and where they are sourced or anything that would verify such claims.

Kourtney Kardashian. Picture: John Shearer/Getty Images

A model walks the runway for the Boohoo X Kourtney Kardashian fashion show. Picture: Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for NYFW: The Shows

Even if they were, sustainable fashion consultant Ellen Chandler questions whether the whole exercise of sustainable fast fashion is a contradiction in terms. “Can a brand ever truly be sustainable if it is built on the essence of conspicuous consumption with detrimental impacts to the environment, people and the world?”

The company’s history is undeniable. In July, the UK’s competition watchdog announced that Boohoo was under investigation over “greenwashing”, and stands accused of exaggerating and providing false information about its sustainability. There have been reports that it pays workers as little as 33c an hour to make its garments. But it’s not limited to Boohoo – fast fashion brands the world over are coming under scrutiny over their spurious, unverified claims, from H&M to Zara and beyond.

“There will be no significant mitigation of the industry’s carbon footprint while rates of production and consumption continue to climb,” says fashion sustainability expert Lucianne Tonti.

“Let’s be very clear, these are clothes that are designed to be worn once and thrown away.

The fabrics being used are not sustainable,” says Tonti. “They are destined to clog up landfills for hundreds of years – a heartbreaking waste of precious resources.”

And the use of celebrity figureheads to promote something as “sustainable” when it is not arguably harms the cause even more. “By getting into bed with a fast fashion brand for the benefit of visibility, fame and money, these influencers (like Kardashian) aren’t doing anything new, radical or good,” notes Chandler.

Hopefully, such ventures will be left behind as fashion embraces a new world order.

“I’m looking forward to a world of beautiful, high quality clothes made from regenerative materials that can be worn often, repaired, shared and recycled,” says Tonti. “And to a different kind of industry that gives back to the people and landscapes along its supply chain rather than making more money for billionaire reality TV stars at the top.”