via @andomeniconi
Traditionally fashion weeks are closed with a party, but last night London Fashion Week ended with a funeral thrown by the climate activist group Extinction Rebellion, in which roughly 200 protestors in funeral garb, accompanied by a band, marched down to 180 The Strand to lay down coffins reading “RIP LFW 1983-2019” and “Our Future.” While fashion week hasn’t officially been cancelled for next year, the demonstrators say that it can’t go on the way it has if the world is to avoid environmental disasters.
“We are currently in a total emergency and we are so close to tipping points that will take this to a point of no return,” Juliet Warwick of Extinction Rebellion tells SLEEK. “We’ve been told that if we don’t start seeing the change happen by next year, it’s too late. So, we have to start thinking, in this time where we have this small window of opportunity, what can we do that might save us?”
Like other environmental activist groups that have been gaining traction over the past year, such as Greta Thunberg’s school strikes for climate change, Extinction Rebellion is calling for more drastic changes to industries in order to meet the 2020 greenhouse gas emissions targets outlined in the Paris Agreement, which aim to keep global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level, preventing extreme weather events and irreparable damage to the earth, like the flooding of coastal cities.
“In a way the idea of sustainable fashion is a lie,” she says. “Twenty years ago, maybe sustainable fashion would have meant something, but now that we are at a point where we are in an absolute emergency. Sustainable fashion has become a way of people saying ‘how can we sustain our current lifestyles and make it a little less impactful for the environment’, when in fact we need to be slamming on the brakes as quickly as we can.”
Last season, Extinction Rebellion made their way down the LFW catwalk as part of the politically-charged Vivienne Westwood show, calling for less consumption, this year, they wanted London to cancel fashion week altogether, the way that Stockholm did in order to address climate concerns. While no designers cancelled their British runways, the group is still demanding that the industry meet with experts to assess how they can move forward without causing further damage to the environment.
Still, some have criticised the activist group for pointing a finger at luxury fashion, which produces less than fast fashion, and emerging designers, who are creating their brands with environmental concerns as core values. But the group says that they are focusing on high fashion for its influence as a cultural leader.
“By doing an action at LFW, doesn’t mean we think they are the worst culprits,” says Warwick. “It means that we think they have more that they can do. Yes, we can say that Primark, and Boohoo and all the rest are creating the damage. But, culture has a unique position in creating the change that we need.”