A suggestion for Burberry"s subsequent line: toxin-cost-free fashion | John Sauven

The Burberry ‘B’ lights up on the catwalk runway at the Chelsea College of Artwork and Design. Photograph: Felix Clay

During Angela Ahrendt’s time at the helm of Burberry she’s taken a 158-yr-outdated label and turned it into a top luxury brand for the 21st century. But Burberry has been left behind the curve in one particular respect – the damaging chemical substances that can be located in its garments.

Greenpeace’s Detox campaign has previously signed up 18 of the greatest key worldwide clothes brands, from Adidas to Zara, to take away toxic chemical compounds from their clothing and, even more importantly, from the outflow pipes of the factories they use. But we want to do more. The worldwide provide chains of big brand names are long, complicated and intertwined with each and every other, and so a crucial mass to shift the whole sector is required. Our newest report on hazardous chemicals in children’s clothes, named A Small Story About the Monsters In Your Closet, has shone a spotlight on Burberry, and we feel they’re well positioned to be an critical part of the remedy.

In a handful of months Ahrendt is moving on, to head Apple’s retail operations, but before she leaves I would like to request her to perform one last miracle: toxin-free of charge fashion.

Angela, you have been recognised for your accomplishments from Forbes to the Monetary Instances, and have turn into a part model for young people everywhere who aspire to be leaders in enterprise and style. Below your stewardship Burberry is a brand revived – its stylish layout and stylish lines sought right after across the globe – but regrettably there is some thing woven into the material which wants to be unpicked.

In our report, Greenpeace tested nine children’s clothes products created by Burberry and identified that all but a single contained hazardous chemical substances. These integrated nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPE), which can break down in the atmosphere to type hormone-disrupting chemical substances. After launched into the setting, a lot of of these chemical substances can have adverse impacts on human reproductive, hormonal or immune methods.

This is not just a difficulty affecting Burberry consumers: these chemical substances can be discovered everywhere, from Beijing to Basingstoke. The fashion industry’s continued use of hazardous substances affects not just regional communities in making countries this kind of as China, but also us here in the Uk, polluting our rivers each and every time we wash our garments, and coming into into our foods programs and homes by way of the merchandise themselves.

We can not ensure that eliminating these hazardous substances will be simple, but practically nothing worthwhile ever is. Forward-thinking brands such as Valentino and Zara are already proving that it can be carried out – committing to Detox and taking credible actions to develop a lot more transparency in a notoriously murky industry. As it stands Burberry dangers getting left behind.

Future generations have the right to increase up in a world free of charge of toxic chemical substances ,and we appeal to Burberry to be element of the answer, not the problem. It has currently proved itself to be a trendsetter and it now has the chance to lead the vogue business in a new direction by taking transformative methods nowadays to make sure a better world tomorrow.

This is larger than style. This is larger than business. This is about the legacy that you can leave for our children. I hope Burberry will seize it with both hands.

A suggestion for Burberry"s subsequent line: toxin-cost-free fashion | John Sauven