The youth arm of the climate activist group Extinction Rebellion, XR Youth US, protested outside of a New York Fashion Week venue in New York City over the weekend.
High schoolers staged a sustainable runway show and modeled upcycled and secondhand clothes. The teenagers grabbed the attention of fashion editors and bystanders with a call to action and informational flyers, Vogue reported.
“It’s more of a call-in than a callout,” Adam Neville, 17, told Vogue.
One protestor wore a dress made of nonbiodegradable bubble wrap, while another wore deli and McDonald’s shopping bags.
The activists said they don’t want to cancel fashion week altogether, but they want the fashion industry to join the climate change movement.
XR Youth shared their demands for the fashion industry in a speech. The protestors urged brands to stop using virgin polyester, become carbon neutral by 2025, adopt a circular supply chain, and stop extracting nonrenewable resources from the Earth. They are demanding an “equitable fashion industry.”
Every year, half a million tons of microfibers end up in the world’s waterways, becoming contaminants that harm marine life. Only 1% of clothing is ever recycled and the rest is burned or dumped into a landfill at a rate of one garbage truck’s worth per second, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
XR Youth shared their demands for the fashion industry in a speech. The protestors urged brands to stop using virgin polyester, become carbon neutral by 2025, adopt a circular supply chain, and stop extracting nonrenewable resources from the Earth. They are demanding an “equitable fashion industry.”
Every year, half a million tons of microfibers end up in the world’s waterways, becoming contaminants that harm marine life. Only 1% of clothing is ever recycled and the rest is burned or dumped into a landfill at a rate of one garbage truck’s worth per second, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
Sophie Anderson, an XR Youth coordinator said the group took inspiration from the London protests, but wanted to send a different message.