I am a fan of BOF: the news aggregator for fashion events and business. They help my work on this blog/book immensely. It is disappointing to read today the title of an article: “Your Obsession with Zara is Actually Harming the Planet.” The article BOF is linking to is by Livia Firth and does not mention Zara at all. The article is on a very important topic: fashion is one of the biggest industries on the planet and fast fashion is one of the greatest polluters. By some counts an item of clothing is worn 7 times before it is discarded into a landfill. This was not always so, as the Livia Firth article points out (http://www.teenvogue.com/story/livia-firth-fast-fashion-cost-on-the-environment-op-ed).
BOF has picked out Zara to title their link just because it is a leader in fast fashion. Are they a famous polluter? I do not know. Maybe BOF has seen data but I doubt it. As I have written here before, Zara has a far more moral business plan than most (http://www.ethicsoffashion.com/fast-fashion-localism/). Admittedly, they are not saints and it is likely true that they contribute significantly to a throw-away culture on account of their rapid turn around in styling clothes but, as Pope Francis points out, the causes of our poor moral culture are many.
Given that Zara is getting some important things right, I think it unfair of BOF to single them out in that link.
