This week more than most, we have been hearing a certain word uttered in fashion circles. Alongside “janties”, “Hedi Slimane” and “kilts”, a perhaps less expected – or, at least, less glitzy – word has been taking up airtime: durability. It comes off the back of Primark’s new Durability Framework, which the fast-fashion giant says is “designed to set the bar for how retailers can extend the life of their clothing – meaning our customers will ultimately be able to love and wear their clothes for longer”.
“Durability shouldn’t be a luxury,” the retailer continued. But while the importance of extending the life of clothes is in no doubt – figures from environmental NGO WRAP show that using an item for nine months can reduce carbon, waste, and water footprints by up to 30% – Primark’s business model is designed to sell masses of clothes at extremely low prices, arguably fuelling a “buy once, wear once” mentality. So it comes as little surprise that Patrick Duffy, founder of the Global Fashion Exchange, describes the announcement as “a textbook example of greenwashing” and “nothing more than a marketing tactic to polish their image”.
