Last week at Dior’s Spring/Summer 2021 show, a protester walked down the runway with a yellow banner exclaiming, “We are all fashion victims.”
Climate action group, Extinction Rebellion, claimed responsibility for the protestor. This same group demonstrated at London Fashion Week last year after calling for a cancellation. In an Instagram post addressed to the British Fashion Council, Extinction Rebellion stated, “Fashion should be a cultural signifier of our times, and yet it still adheres to an archaic system of seasonal fashion and relentless newness at a time of emergency.”
What made this protest different from others was that the Dior attendees initially believed the stunt to be a part of the show. Protests have become a motif for Creative Director of Dior Womenswear, Maria Grazia Chiuri, in many past seasons. However, it often feels non-evident or rather surface level in the clothing itself.
Just this February, a flashing neon sign at a Dior show read, “Patriarchy = climate emergency.” A few years back, Dior’s Fall/Winter 2018 show was inspired by the feminist protests of the late 1960s, with slogans, protest art, and magazine covers plastered to every wall. The “We Should All Be Feminist” tees kickstarted Chiuri’s tenure at Dior in 2016.
CEO and chairman of LVMH Sidney Tolendano, excused the protest with a statement, “I don’t think we’re destroying the planet. We’re committed to reducing our environmental impact by cutting our carbon dioxide emissions, tracing our raw materials, and so forth. They shouldn’t be targeting us. I think there are industries that pollute much more.”
While LVMH recently hired an environmental development director and has plans to release the fashion conglomerate’s commitment to sustainability, it feels dismissive to say that other industries pollute more. Let us not forget, the fashion industry is one of the biggest polluters and the second-biggest consumer of water.
Fashion week is no stranger to protests on the runway — a Peta protester crashed the Dior show in 2003 and was promptly shoved off stage by a model. Seventeen years later, Dior no longer uses animal fur among the likes of Chanel, Versace, Gucci, and many other high fashion brands.
We are all fashion victims; the climate emergency will affect each of us. How long will it take to look back on environmental protests like those of Extinction Rebellion and see the results of their action begin to take hold in the fashion community?
Words by Nicholson Baird
Image sourced from People Magazine