It’s fashion week in London – an event supported by – the government’s British Fashion Council who select and groom the creative sector to create max industry power into their perfectly-cut pockets.  Around £32 billion a year.

Fashion is everything we leave the house in. If we’re lucky enough to have a house.

Style is better, kindness to the planet is hipper, and at Cold Lips we love luxe garms as much as Vogue, but we love the planet too – so standing aside Extinction Rebellion who are lobbying London Fashion Week, this is a story we’ve wanted to run forever, but Celtic and Co just sent us their research – to we’re sharing like it’s a free sample sale from Dame Viv:

1. We’d be better off sucking on an exhaust than getting garbage bags of shit new lewks from the high street: the fashion industry emits more greenhouse gasses than all the world’s air and maritime travel combined.
2. The treatment and dyeing of textiles contributes to 20% of global industrial water pollution. The UN has stated that by 2050, the equivalent of almost three planets could be required to provide the natural resources needed to sustain current lifestyles, if the global population rises to 9.6 billion.
3. The UK buys more clothing per person than any other European country, with the average consumer buying 26.7kg of fashion items per year.  In the US, they do 16 keys.  In landfill, that’s about 300 average potatoes. But what about all the old stuff?  UK WRAP stats suggest £140 million, roughly 350,000 tonnes worth of used but wearable clothing makes its way to land fill every year.
4. So stop it.  Just stop it NOW.
5. On average the lifetime of a garment in the UK is estimated at just 2.2 years.  THIS NEEDS TO CHANGE.  BUY LESS, BUT BUY QUALITY.  AND BUY RECYCLED FASHION.  Currently, by using sustainable natural materials such as wool, cotton and linen will not only last longer but also not pollute the environment once it has come to the end of its life, as all these materials decompose safely.  Buy responsibly sourced fabrics.
6. Chatting to someone in the fashion industry in Italy recently – there are seas you can’t swim in in Italy, because of the byproducts.  Or you can, but you get cancer.
7. Speaking of the ocean, why not take a walk on the Big Sur and collect some of those big ol globules of plastic, or do a trip to the plastic island in the Pacific which is twice the size of Texas, which is multiple Frances.
8. 63% of clothing is now made from plastic derived manmade materials, such as polyester and acrylic. Every time you wash a garment that is made from plastic, thousands of invisible microplastic fibres are released. It is estimated that over 700,000 microplastic fibres are released in a typical 6kg wash. These microplastics then make their way into our waterways and, ultimately, into the ocean.
9. The textile industry uses LOADS of oil.  To create 100 billion units of clothing a year.  THERE ARE ONLY 7.5 billion of us here.

That’s it.  So yes, just stop fucking the planet up, ya?