Love Island is back on our screens, with one big difference: they’ve ditched the fast fashion and, this year, are dressing the contestants in second-hand clothes from eBay.
The show, which has drawn in over 3 million viewers in the past, has previously been criticised for promoting fast fashion brands such as Boohoo-owned I Saw It First.
Brands like these sell low-quality clothing for cheap prices but at a huge environmental cost. The ‘fast fashion’ industry, as it has come to be known, is highly polluting. The clothes are made to be worn only a few times before being thrown away and replaced, meaning more waste too.
On top of that, many fast fashion brands have even been accused of human rights violations by not paying their workers even minimum wage.
This is a huge issue which Love Island’s previous partnerships only made worse. In fact, online fashion sales grew by 10% while the reality show ran last summer, and their fashion partner, I Saw It First, saw a 67% increase in sales and a 254% increase in Instagram followers in 2019.
That is why it’s such a welcome and positive move for them to this year, instead, partner with eBay. Buying your clothes second-hand (and selling or giving away what you don’t wear anymore) is one of the best ways to make your wardrobe more environmentally friendly.
The new partnership is also more in line with changes in people’s shopping habits. A fifth of Brits say they are buying more second-hand clothes than they did two years ago; on average, 16% of their wardrobe is preloved.
This is driven by younger generations, particularly Gen X, who are the show’s primary viewership demographic.
Amy Bannerman, who worked on sourcing the outfits for the show, said in an interview with GQ:
“People have preconceptions of pre-loved, and I think we’ve managed to make the pieces we’ve sourced from eBay not look like the battered vintage people are expecting to see. People will be surprised, which we all hope will encourage them to add pre-loved to their wardrobes too.”
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