And Yet, Fashion Persists

We know sequins and glitter are unbiodegradable, plastic rubbish, and yet every brand from the high street to Harrods is still peddling this stuff.

There is an element of tone deafness going on right now. I’m not the only one to point it out. Investor and fashion godmother Carmen Busquets, (founder of Net a Porter, investor in Farfetch, Lyst and Cult Beauty), told Vogue Business this week she thought fashion had become ‘lazy’ and ‘greedy’.

If you want evidence of this, walk across any womenswear floor, and you’d be forgiven for putting on your sunglasses. It is a sea of radiant matter: glittering sequins, shiny lamé and sparkly embroidery shimmers everywhere before you, on tops, trousers, dresses, skirts, bombers, handbags and even jeans. Worst offender is the high street, where from Zara to H&M, fashion seems to have mistaken itself for a daytime disco ball.

Sienna Miller’s collection from M&S is a dazzling array of pure plastic - even she has to wear shades

No one actually wants to wear this stuff do they? Actual plastic? With Christmas party season in full swing, I decided to investigate. (Nobly) attending a slue of functions last week, from the British Fashion Awards to a charity ball, an office party to a night club dancefloor, I can confirm: the world is wearing sequins.

The Christmas market must have the worst carbon footprint of all. Where all this sparkly stuff began and how it ends is neither a cause for comfort or joy. Simply, it is some of the most polluting clothing you can buy. Sequins, beading, diamanté and glitter are all plastic, a by-product of the petrochemical industry, which means not only is it all made from carbon intensive fossil fuels, but it will not biodegrade. Anything plastic or synthetic sits in landfills for hundreds of years.

Fashion is not telling us the truth. Up on the wall at M&S are references to ‘Plan A: Our Planet’, signage that would lead you to believe a shop at M&S is a vote for a greener future, yet their party collection is wall to wall glitter. Next’s website talks of ‘emission reductions’ and ‘ambitious targets’ at the same time as listing 2,418 ‘new in’ shiny party pieces. (Fun fact: the latest Circularity Report for 2024 states that ‘in the past six years alone we have consumed over half a trillion tonnes of materials - nearly as much as the entire 20th century”.) Every luxury brand from Chanel to Tom Ford is on to this, but you can’t say you are on the side of sustainability and be peddling mountains of plastic to your consumers.

Shocking statistics from this year’s circularity report

Party season is no doubt a shopping trigger. You are on display, you meed to shine. Sparkly clothes tap into tinsel vibes, and that’s what we all want at this time of year, to feel twinkly and fun. But sequins are not twinkly or fun, they are small plastic discs punched out of larger plastic sheets that are then discarded as waste. In the global south where most of our high street clothes are made, this waste is burned, which produces toxic fumes that poison the air. Sequins, or indeed any type of embellishment from ‘pearls’ to ‘crystals’, (unless you are paying a very high price tag, your embellishments will be plastic and not actual pearls or crystal), are stitched on to fabrics with synthetic polyester thread, (because it is stronger) and chances are the fabric this plastic is sewn on to is synthetic too.

If you picked it up on the high street (you just need something for the office party, Help! you haven’t got anything to wear), it is unlikely to be of any quality, meaning the sequins and beads often fall off. They fall off on the dance floor, in the wash, getting in and out of a car. Have you ever inspected the floor when the lights go on at the end of the party? These stray sequins, and all those dumped in landfill, leach micro plastics that have now been found everywhere from breast milk to the Antarctic ice sheet. These tiny particles are impossible to clean up - we are stuck with them forever, and scientists say we are now inhaling them daily.

If that doesn’t make you feel sick, know that they are making you sick anyway. “There is an increasing body of evidence that microplastics are really bad for your health,” says George Harding Rolls, of climate group Actions Speak Louder. “These particles are now in placentas and brain tissue and their endocrine disrupting properties are linked to lower fertility, reduced sperm counts, thyroid issues and breast development.”

You can read more about the health concerns of plastic clothes in this post

How toxic is your sportswear?

The campaign group Hubbub reckons that “If everyone wore a preloved outfit on Christmas Day, the CO2 emissions saved would be equivalent to taking 56 million cars off the road for a day.”

I actually went up to some poor woman at a party who was wearing a sparkly jumper and asked her if she knew her sequins were plastic. I hated myself for shaming her, but I just don’t think people realise. She looked horrified, poor woman, so I said it was fine, all she had to do was wear her jumper every year for a decade to justify it. She ran away and I don’t blame her. Then in Koko on Saturday night I found myself envying a crystal embellished David Koma sweatshirt on a fashion maven and realised it was the same shit, just more expensive. I have in my wardrobe a sequin J Crew midiskirt - because we have all succumbed to these pieces of disco wear at some point. But if we’re (I’m) honest, the number of wears we get out of them are minimal. Something bought for a Christmas party is only likely to be worn two or three times. I wore my skirt to a couple of weddings too, but it has lain untouched for years. Should I wear it? It might drop sequins. Can I dispose of it? No. It’s not going anywhere, it’s going to sit in some landfill - or in a desert of waterway - for centuries. I have no idea what to do with it, wearing it just perpetuates the idea that sequins are somehow okay.

And yet fashion persists. “Shiny partywear is the new Halloween,” says Anna Woods of resale brand Positive Retail. “We’re made to think that that’s our next purchase. It’s hoodwinking people into thinking we’ve got to have these things now, and it’s in the psyche of the consumer that we have to buy it. It’s depressing.” Really, fashion should know better. There are more sustainable fabrics, better examples of quality and investment dressing. Sparkly party wear is disposable, toxic rubbish. Opt instead for silk, or a good tuxedo, or something bright and colourful to get you noticed.

If you really do want to sparkle, brands like Stella McCartney and Proenza Schouler are beginning to use ‘bio-sequins’ made of plant matter, that will biodegrade. Aspiga uses recycled sequins, which are rescued from landfill and re-used, and this is a better option. Second hand is also preferable, and charity shops are teeming with discarded party wear, but I don’t think we should be wearing plastic at all - it’s bad for our health and it is no longer attractive or beautiful.

As Busquets reveals to Vogue, luxury has gone off course and needs to clean itself up. She calls it an “embarrassing shift towards inefficiency”. Instead she advocates for circular business models and a limit on overproduction. As for your next Christmas party - as vintage queen Bay Garnett says, “Don’t dress up - just wear what you have! I don’t understand this idea of occasion dressing. Surely you can delve into your wardrobe and find something you’ve already got?”