London Fashion Week (LFW) is often seen as fashion’s testing ground for sustainability, being the first of the ‘big four’ events to adopt Copenhagen’s environmental rules. Still, contradictions remain: fast fashion giants share the stage with independents, and sponsors can face greenwashing claims. Model and activist Dr Brett Staniland shares his candid view on LFW’s future and why London’s creative legacy could still lead the way.
Staniland: While London made big strides in becoming the first of the ‘big four’ to adopt Copenhagen’s sustainability requirements for brands on schedule, we simultaneously have Vinted and eBay on the London Fashion Week schedule alongside both Zara and H&M. Are we serious about sustainability or not? How can we set high expectations for emerging designers and still give prominent space to large brands whose sustainability claims are widely debated?
Staniland: There’s an opportunity right now, because while consumers are becoming tired of big brands and logos they can’t trust, there’s a desire for craftsmanship and sustainable fashion storytelling from honest brands with real values.
Staniland: We are almost always at the mercy of big-but-bad money. With almost anything to do with sustainability, the funding sponsor is a large brand or business with problematic ties. It’s so underfunded that the money usually comes from a bigger, worse brand that is using the project to greenwash their image and act like they care.
Staniland: The creators’ job has been guided purely by capitalism, where their worth is only valued by how much and how quickly they can sell products. I’d like to see a shift away from this, and the link-to-buys, towards deeper storytelling, transparency, and craft. Taking people away from impulse buys and towards discovery – where they can learn before they buy.
Rather than a product test or try-on, can UK fashion influencers show an audience where the product came from, who made it, and how? The influencer should foster long-term trust with their community and prioritize that relationship over short-term, trend-led exposure.
Staniland: The UK fashion scene is shifting toward decentralization – a move the British Fashion Council is actively championing this September – and brands should adapt by investing in long-term partnerships with well-aligned London Fashion Week creators who can articulate both brand and industry values. That means being far more intentional about who receives brand budgets and association, with a clear priority on ethical influencer collaborations. Challenge isn’t the enemy; complacency is – especially the kind that comes from agreeable yes-people who stand for nothing.
Due diligence matters too: when running influencer campaigns, scrutinize who else a creator works with and whether there’s a strong, coherent fit with your category. Ask if they genuinely care about their craft or are simply selling, whether they have a voice, and how they use it. Choosing responsible UK fashion influencers who produce high-quality content also pays off in repurposable assets that live convincingly on both the brand’s and the creator’s feeds. Ultimately, a key creator is one whose community trusts them – evidenced by steady, meaningful engagement rather than empty flame-emoji reactions – and who often nurtures deeper dialogues through channels like broadcast groups or a Substack.
Staniland: Following on from the Warhol quote, algorithms, PRs, and the wider industry have praised the lowest forms and most agreeable content over nuance and critical thinking. The iPhone fitpic merchants who offer little to a conversation have been notoriously over-compensated and over-indulged in the industry because they help push trend cycles the quickest. But there are creators now who offer so much more: analysis, history, challenge, and honest opinions. London Fashion Week was designed for a very few select people originally: buyers and press.
With the celebrity zeitgeist and fashion creator marketing evolving, more seats became available to the press, which expanded into celebrities and influencers to obtain something called ‘earned media value.’ This has gone so far now that the creators often don’t care about supporting the show or the designer; they just want to be seen in the front row of the hottest ticket in town. Its roles have leveled out, and rather than the designer gaining from the talent to sell clothes, the ‘talent’ is gaining in social clout by being associated with pop culture and high fashion.
Staniland: In the other fashion capitals, fashion has an inherent value and respect from wider society. Working in fashion in Milan is heralded as one of the best industries to work in; there are jobs everywhere from luxury brands, head offices, marketing and creatives, as well as textile manufacturing and mills.
People are desperate to know who you work for and how you got there. In England, and certainly outside of London, people look down on the industry as something unserious, temporary, and unfulfilling. The government has underfunded and underappreciated the industry’s work for years, breeding challenging and problematic opinions about the industry.
When I say I work in fashion, people follow up with questions like, “Oh, in retail?”, “But what are you going to do for a career, as a real job?”, and “Did anyone in fashion even go to University?”.
They can’t fathom men working in fashion because it is notoriously a women-dominated industry. Therefore, they’ve attached a lesser importance on the industry as a whole, and assume that it’s exclusive to women and gay men, filled with low-skilled jobs, which are less serious, fun, and non-impactful.
But the reality is that fashion has employed 300 million people in recent years, and globally it contributes to a huge amount of greenhouse gas emissions (10%, the second-most-polluting industry). If we take fashion seriously, respect the highly skilled workers, and realize how much it contributes to the economy, we might be more serious about tackling the negative impact of it, too.
Staniland: Fashion week is a glossy mirage, a surface-level display of an industry that is struggling in many ways. Designers with limited budgets still find ways to deliver, staying visible in top-tier circles and in front of clients. Despite scarce resources, they consistently produce work that keeps them in the conversation – and in the room. Other brands hide their scandals by inviting massive celebrities to help rehabilitate their brand image, and behind it all is a massive cost to the planet, with more collections than ever before, extravagant locations, and more and more trends, which translate to the most polluting brands at the ultra-fast fashion level.
There are fewer stories, less substance, and more stuff for stuff’s sake.
Staniland: When people think of British fashion, the names that come to mind are people like Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen, who were bold, brave, and always stood by who they really were. Unafraid to speak out and say the truth.
We have to take inspiration from them, rather than hinder or silence people who do the same as they did. Stories are important, and they move people; this is extremely valuable within the fight for a more sustainable industry and responsible fashion campaigns in London.
Fashion week in the UK is at a tipping point: it can either double down on surface-level spectacle or reclaim its role as a platform for honesty, values, and craft. As industry expert Staniland points out, Britain’s greatest fashion icons were truth-tellers first and designers second. The challenge now is whether the industry is willing to be just as bold.
