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Exploring how the fashion industry could move towards ethical and sustainable fashion is a topic that is widely presented and talked about. On February 14th, 2023, Source Fashion, a new sustainable sourcing show taking place in the U.K hosted a panel on ethical sourcing practices, with a special accent on fashion. It was led by four managers from Boohoo and was moderated by Cheryl Chung, a former employee of the company, now a business consultant. This drew criticism from protesters questioning previous accusations made against the brand about violating laborers’ rights.
“How dare Boohoo take this platform to speak about ethics and industry collaboration,” shouted Venetia La Manna, an advocate for fair fashion, who was quickly led away by security. “Why aren’t your garment makers on this panel?” Her questions refer to the 2020 Sunday Times investigation of a Leicester factory owned by Boohoo exposing that workers continued to work under lock down and were being paid as little as $4.40 per hour, despite the legal minimum wage being $10.93 per hour. Another protester compared the salaries to that of Boohoo’s chief executive officer John Lyttle who received a bonus of 200% of his salary under a pay plan.
Earlier in 2023, the fast fashion retailer drew criticism for appointing reality TV star Kourtney Kardashian Barker as an ambassador with “a focus on sustainability” while continuing to be investigated by the U.K’s Competition and Market’s Analysis department over its environmental credentials.
- “The statements and language used by the businesses are too broad and vague, and may create the impression that clothing collections – such as the ‘Responsible edit’ from ASOS, Boohoo’s current ‘Ready for the Future’ range, and ‘George for Good’ – are more environmentally sustainable than they actually are.
- “The criteria used by some of these businesses to decide which products to include in these collections may be lower than customers might reasonably expect from their descriptions and overall presentation – for example, some products may contain as little as 20% recycled fabric.”
Much like February’s protest, these conversations questioning Boohoo’s practices are important to help consumers avoid misleading claims. As Venetia explained, the aim and the purpose of the protest were to call out Boohoo’s greenwashing (marketing products as green when they really are not), and there was no better way to do so than in person.