An additional 6,280 tonnes of CO2 emissions will be caused directly by Love Island 2019.

Love the Sales has calculated that Love Island's sponsorship by fast fashion retailer, I Saw It First, will cause an extra 314 tonnes of clothing to go into landfill this year. The additional sales by the popularity of the program will cause the release of an additional 6,280 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

This is equivalent to a diesel HGV driving 170 times around the earth.

This staggering statistic demonstrates the damage that can be caused by fast fashion and its alignment with popular, influential shows such as Love Island.

Love Island’s fashion problem

Looking at the bigger picture behind this wildly popular show – 3.2 million people typically tune in to each episode of Love Island, and it has 2.1 million followers on Instagram– another ethical issue is coming to the fore: fast, unsustainable fashion and the destructive consequences.

In the past 15 years, global clothing production has doubled. That’s great news for retailers who can shift rails and rails of £5 dresses, but terrible news for the planet. In 2015, for example, the worldwide textile industry was responsible for 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions – more than the products of the maritime industry and international flights combined, with 5% of total global emissions coming from the fashion industry.

Most of it isn’t recycled, either – less than 1% of textiles used to make clothes are recycled into new clothing, with a paltry 12% used to make products such as mattresses. Over a third of these “fast fashion” purchases find their way into the bin within a year, where it costs the UK economy 82 million pounds a year to get rid of them – and, let’s be honest, at those prices a lot of us consider these clothes as single-use items.

Search for fast fashion retailers has increased by 64% since 2016. Those phones are always at the ready, and when you have a crowd of Instagram followers, you can’t let your fashion game slip. When there’s more month than money, cheap online retailers mean you can still keep up with the reality stars.

We’re all talking about going plastic-free, ditching our drinking straws and shunning unnecessary packaging, so why are we so reluctant to give up our fast fashion habit? There is already the beginnings of backlash, with sustainable clothing gaining a following.

#Loveisland Surfer babe, Lucie, rocking The Viper Suit, made from recycled ocean waste! #sustainable #swimwear #ecofriendly #notoplastic pic.twitter.com/oArCpWemol
— Pursuit The Label (@Pursuitswimwear) May 28, 2019

Stunning surfer Lucie Donlan, one of this year’s Love Island contestants, chose swimsuit from a sustainable brand, London-based Pursuit The Label, for her opening promotional picture. Lucie looks amazing in her pink costume, which is made from reclaimed ocean waste.

Unfortunately, that piece, with its impeccable green credentials, won’t be allowed through the door of Casa Amor – contestants are only allowed to wear clothes from this year’s sponsor, fast fashion brand I Saw It First. Founded by Jalal Kamani, co-founder of the hugely successful Boohoo.com, I Saw It First brings the latest trends to a young target audience at very low prices.

A Fast fashion brand will sponsor the show for 2 years running

A casual browse at their sale section – for those “running low before payday” – reveals at least 70 dresses on sale for less than £5, with a bodycon number that wouldn’t look out of place on a Love Island contestant going for as little as £2!

When your outfit costs less than a takeaway coffee, why would you need it to hang around much longer?

I Saw It First’s website shows their Love Island collection, 4000 pieces in total, all ready for the clicking, with 50% off everything before the show even hits our screens. The idea, clearly, is to buy in bulk – the only profitable model for fashion brands operating at such minuscule margins.

Missguided saw a 9000% increase in some Love Island wear

This will be Love Island’s second year with a fast fashion sponsor – Missguided, who secured a similar exclusive deal with the show in 2018, saw their sales increase by a whopping 9000% on certain collections as a result of their collaboration last year.

The effect is almost instant – there was a 300-500% increase in items worn by Islanders, and 18% of Missguided sales came directly from Love Island viewers buying clothes they’d seen on contestants.

As Paula Robson, managing partner at MediaCom, told UK Fashion Network: “Brands have a really exciting opportunity to engage with avid viewers who are inspired by the Love Island stars, setting and lifestyle.” When something catches our eye, lit up by the bright Mallorcan sun, we can be sourcing it on our smartphones in minutes.

It’s not even just the contestants’ outfits we want for ourselves – searches for “yellow playsuit” on ebay.co.uk jumped by 276% immediately after host Caroline Flack wore a gorgeous sunshine-coloured piece in the opening series. You can see it, source it, and have it sent to you for less than the price of a chilled glass of white wine at your local. You might not be mixing with the beautiful people at a luxurious island villa, but at least you can look the part!

Not all of the cheaper brands are the worst offenders when it comes to environmental, and ultimately human, damage. An eye-opening study by the government's Environmental Audit Committee earlier this year singled out online fast fashion retailers such as Boohoo, Missguided and TK Maxx as some of the least engaged in ethical practices such as reducing carbon footprints, avoiding the use of hazardous chemicals, and recycling.

In addition, these brands had failed to sign up to agreements concerning the rights of workers producing clothes to be sold on their sites. Asos, however, got a much cleaner bill of health, and praise for its recycling efforts. Established brands such as Marks and Spencer and Burberry also showed progress in working towards sustainable targets.

You don’t have to max out the plastic to avoid contributing to environmental destruction and worker exploitation on the one hand, and letting your wardrobe go stale on the other. It just pays to do your research.

We aren’t all just dazzled by a vision of aspirational lifestyles - research shows that younger shoppers really do care about the ethical side of fashion. Fashion search engine Lyst recently recorded a 47% increase in searches for sustainable and ethical fashion items.

With the growing trend towards veganism, consumers will be more and more inclined to look carefully at how their clothes are being produced. The same is true for make-up, which might give the Love Island producers pause – Rimmel London, this year’s make-up sponsor, is not a cruelty-free brand.

Mintel survey results show that more than half of shoppers are concerned with the ethical side of production, and that figure rises to 60% among under 24s – Love Island’s target audience, and the target for fast fashion retailers in general.

Mike Barry, Marks and Spencer’s director of sustainable business, predicts that the winds of change are blowing through the rock-bottom rag trade: “There is not an obvious consumer backlash against fast fashion today, but it would be a very brave business leader who didn’t look into the next 12 to 18 months and say we are not heading there. Every business leader in the fashion industry knows that clothing will have the same level of questioning and challenging that food has had for years”, he predicts.

Whilst they’re watching the exploits of this year’s crop of Islanders, the Love Island audience might well be feeling more thoughtful about the real cost of dirt-cheap clothes. Seeing as people are purchasing 400% more clothing than 20 years ago, as a major fashion influencer, Love Island has a duty to think carefully about who they choose to partner with in 2020.

UK fast fashion statistics:

An additional 6,280 tonnes of CO2 emissions will be caused directly by Love Island 2019.
6,280 tonnes of CO2 emissions is equivalent to a diesel HGV driving 170 times around the earth.
I Saw It First will cause an extra 314 tonnes of clothing to go into landfill this year through its sponsorship of Love Island 2019.
Sales for last year's sponsor Missguided increased by 9000% for some clothing lines
Online search for fast fashion brands has increased by 64% since 2016.
In the past 15 years, global clothing production has doubled to 60 million tonnes garments produced per year, this is set to rise by 67% in 2030 to 100 million tonnes.
1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions are released each year from the fashion industry.
300,000 tonnes of clothing in the UK is sent to landfill each year, less than 1% is recycled to make new clothing.
UK has the highest consumption of new clothing in Europe (26.7kg per person), consumption has increased by 400% over two decades.
2019 sustainability report by UK government found fast fashion retailers Boohoo & Missguided to be the 'least engaged retailers' in sustainability

Notes to the Editor

CONTACT

Liam Solomon
e: liam@lovethesales.com

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