JANET STREET-PORTER: If the woke Fashion Week warriors really cared about saving the planet, they’d abolish themselves (and that goes for Mr Bezos too)
The weather forecast has become drearily repetitive; tonight – rain, tomorrow – rain, and for the foreseeable future – wind and rain. Not that celebrities attending London Fashion week were that bothered, judging by their outfits.
In the run-up to the shows, we were told that designers were highly ‘concerned’ about the environment, determined to use ethical fabrics, cut waste and committed to recycling.
What happened? Welcome to the trendy world of eco-chic fake ‘awareness’.
I spotted stick insect Alexa Chung in a dress by JW Anderson that seemed to have lost a big part of it’s sides…maybe that’s what they meant about cutting waste.
Naomi Campbell arriving at the Burberry Fashion Show during London Fashion Week on February 17
Naomi Campbell arrived at the Burberry show wearing a coat that combined black leather, snakeskin and pony (hopefully all fake) festooned with glittery buttons, an orgy of excess.
The front row at Burberry featured junior celebs like Madonna’s daughter Lourdes wearing so many free checked clothes I almost got a migraine.
One designer featured tulle frocks – worn over hand knitted cardigans – I suppose that’s ‘craft’ of a kind. The fabulous Billy Porter turned up wearing a show-stopping new outfit every couple of hour.
From frocks to tropical prints, he had every base covered – hardly an advert for restraint. Even Victoria Beckham’s kids weren’t wearing recycled gear from a charity shop but brand new sweaters and jackets by Dior.
I searched the catwalks in vain for evidence of those ‘eco-friendly’ garments we had been promised.Preen by Thornton Bregazzi featured lovely clothes in georgette made from plastic waste with buttons made from nuts.
Alexa Chung is seen wearing brown coat, black dress outside JW Anderson during London Fashion Week February 2020 on February 17, 2020 in London
A well-intentioned gesture, but a few nut buttons are hardly going to reduce the number of bushfires or freak flooding over the coming months.
How about turning last year’s unsold clothes into carpets, curtains and home furnishings for the flood victims?
The fashion world doesn’t really do ‘environment’, does it? After all, the whole point of the industry is to brainwash us into buying clothes we don’t really need.
One bunch of ‘ethical influencers’ make a living posting lists of their favourite charity shops. Do they expect a medal for wearing old shoes or pre-loved blouses? It’s hardly new.
This week, I wore a camel coat my mother had bought in 1955 to work. Voluminous, it hides a multitude of sins – perfect when you feel crap.
My ‘vintage’ choice was met with reverent praise, as if I’d single handedly rowed a boat up the Severn and rescued a few flooded families. Let’s be honest, this kind of recycling is meaningless, my wardrobe is packed with sweaters, trainers and jeans for every hour of the week.
If you want to stop waste (and the fashion industry produces more than almost any other) – just stop buying!
FKA Twigs and Naomi Campbell attend the Burberry Autumn/Winter 2020 show during London Fashion Week
As fashion editors waffle the same bilge as last year about hemlines and evening frocks (I know – I used to be one of them), flood victims (quite justifiably) complain that no one in power really cares. Why haven’t they had a visit from bouncy Boris?
Perhaps he has been too busy sorting out the final cost of his divorce to make the trip to South Wales or Worcestershire. In Herefordshire, the River Wye has reached it’s highest level since 1795, and still the waters keep rising.
Building flood defences will never be able to help everyone, but good politicians know the value of a sympathetic trip to voters who have seen their cherished possessions ruined by thick mud. Even Prince Charles is better at this than our current PM.
At least the Prince has been talking about climate change for decades, growing organic food and wearing coats his great grandfather bought in 1925.
The Prince uses jets and is surrounded by luxury and fawning servants, but on the subject of saving the planet he cannot be faulted for sticking to the same script for decades.
He’s not popping down to Wholefoods for a bag of hand picked corn or wearing (like Meghan) what has been described as ‘luxe’ knitted plastic pumps costing the equivalent of a week’s wages for most workers. He’s wearing the same brogues he wore twenty years ago, albeit polished by a minion to almost-new shininess.
Extinction rebellion activists ripped up the garden around an apple tree in Cambridge that descended from the one that inspired Sir Isaac Newton as part of a protest against a controversial university investment. Pictured: Activists dig up the lawn as one person is chained to the tree
The floods have hit ordinary people with so little to lose. A hairdressing salon, village pubs and cafés, retirement cottages – all devastated.
Many owners will be uninsured, most will have savings, and any government help with be capped at a low level. But the new ‘woke’ eco warriors aren’t exactly rushing to the Welsh valleys to help bail them out.
They prefer a pompous pronouncement and a mindless stunt for maximum publicity.
This week, Extinction Rebellion dug up a pristine lawn at Trinity College in Cambridge to protest at investment in fossil fuels, and plans to turn a farm into a business park. What did this silly stunt achieve? Publicity – the essential oxygen required by modern eco-warriors.
Another misguided chap, F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton, has declared himself 100% committed to fighting climate change after being declared joint winner of a Sportsman of the Year award.
Jeff Bezos, the CEO and founder of Amazon.com, speaks during the grand opening of the Amazon Spheres in Seattle
Yes, the same bloke who’s made millions by participating in a sport which burns gallons of fuel, fills the air with fumes and produces a disgusting level of noise pollution.
Are his tyres being made from recycled waste? Is he wearing clothes from charity shops? Declaring yourself a vegan and flogging your £25 million private jet is not enough to save one street, let alone a continent.
Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, has just pledged $10 billion to flight climate change.
A pity he didn’t make that his priority before he unleashed literally millions of vehicles on our streets carrying his wares, packaged in massive boxes, with wasteful over-sized containers galore. How many trees does Bezos cull in a day?
Elon Musk is another faux-environmentalist – planning to build a huge new factory to produce his electric cars in Germany.
Sadly he didn’t bother to get permission before construction workers started tearing down trees on the site near Berlin, a nature reserve and home to endangered bats and sand lizards.
I bet Mr Musk will be finding a smart way to deal with bat and tree issues so that production of 150,000 vehicles a year can start without delay. Who really cares about rehoming lizards or climate change when massive profits are at stake?
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