Boohoo! Fashion brand under spotlight for contributing to ‘throwaway’ clothes culture
- Boohoo.com criticised for selling dresses for as little as £5
- Even charities say they will not take £5 dresses as they are 'low quality'
- Debate as to what shoppers can do to promote higher levels of sustainability and cost of 'fast fashion'
Manchester-based fashion brand Boohoo has been slammed in Parliament for selling £5 garments which even charity shops will not accept.
A total of 400,000 tons of clothing ends up in landfill each year and hard questions are being asked about the cost to the environment.
The brand was criticised by Labour MP Mary Creasy, chair of the environmental audit select committee, who said brands such as Boohoo were selling clothes at “pocket money prices” which are then regarded as “disposable”.
Boohoo said: “Sustainability is an important subject to us at boohoo and something that is top of our agenda. We cater for a wide variety of customers and do offer some very affordable options as highlighted here, but these are just a small part of our offer.
“The youthful demographic of our customer, means that education is key and we use our huge reach across social channels globally to help share ideas of how a garment can be utilised in their wardrobe again and again.
“We are also working with reGAIN a company that allows users to recycle unwanted clothing to prevent them from going to landfill.
“We know there is more we can do and we acknowledge that we have a responsibility and role to play being a fast fashion brand.”
Most women don’t know that most hight street fashion is designed to be replaced quickly, not so much by desire but by need. Items falls apart ending up in the landfills and trapping young women in the poverty. I buy less and I buy better.
— Justina (@justinabarste) October 30, 2018
The rise in ‘fast fashion’ and the need for many millennials to be constantly on trend is a contributing factor to the lack of sustainability seen in society.Orlagh Shanks, 21, a final year PR student said: “ I definitely think the influencer world has a lot to answer for as fashion bloggers and Instagrammers are constantly pushing clothes at their followers with their discount codes and swipe-up to buy options”.
Leanne Jenna added: “The whole idea of ‘fashion’, of items of clothing going in and out of style promotes an attitude of wastefulness.”
Can’t believe younger women throw clothes in the bin! What happened to swapping , recycling, charity shops, carboots and jumble sales?. Throwaway society! I hardly throw anything away. Still sometimes wear maternity joggers from 2005. Lol
— cathy_goodwin (@CathyGoodwin159) October 30, 2018