You may or may not have seen that mini skirt design debated by Diesel as a part of its fall and winter fashion wear. But Tik Tok certainly has, with many flocking, to purchase the new £900 fashion craze. Made for girls between the sizes of 00 and 0... It's another spinoff of the recent return to the trends we credit the 2000s for. But this "skirt" might just be the tiniest, most impractical piece of clothing available for actual sale I have ever seen. I will admit it is a styling piece.....I do quite like it its very cute. The issue however is not the cuteness of these clothes, or how effective they are in a magazine shoot. I get why it was designed for sale it is eye-catching, different, and bred for virality.
The problem, of course, is that it supports and perpetuates a huge problem to which the fashion industry is its biggest contributor. The purchasing of items, garments, and accessories with the sole purpose of signalling relevancy to others. In other words, rampant consumerism, wastefulness, and landfill contributions. It's the never-ending buying of things to fulfil an insatiable desire. A desire that itself is an issue because it is unsustainable.
This is compounded by the very fact this skirt is wholly impractical, unwearable, and not even of high quality. Style influencer Adrienne Reau posted a TikTok video of herself opening her package containing the infamous skirt which she ordered from Diesel. The influencer also took issue with the skirt's quality and size. She noted that though the skirt is made of leather, but felt more like "rubber." She also said the Velcro used to hold the skirt together "kind of brings down the quality," and is visible when adjusted for larger sizes. Reau then discussed wearing the skirt in public, and said it was "so impractical." She said she couldn't sit down while wearing it and had to go home to change after 20 minutes of wear. "My cheeks were just out and about," she said in her TikTok video.
While I think it is half laughable that anyone would look at this skirt and think it was meant to be a functional and wearable piece and clothing, I understand that perspective comes from my understanding and knowledge of the fashion industry through work. It's not hard to understand why someone would expect an item from a designer brand with a price tag such as this would at the very least be functional and be secured with more than a cheap strip of velcro.
I love an iconic moment within fashion but this skirt... more so what it represents is kind of a slap in the face of the fight for a more sustainable fashion industry. Fashion doesn't have to sit at polar opposites to sustainability and environmentally conscious. It's perfectly possible to have iconic moments that also keep in mind the impact they will have. I think it's important to note that I don't think Diesel is the issue or even the skirt, I don't think it's fair to sacrifice creativity and whimsy in the pursuit of a sustainable future. It's more that now I have an awareness of the social issue that an item like this highlights. Consumerism at its worse... Worse yet, I can't provide a solution, a way to break the cycle. But I think moments like this are worth noting and educating so that the awareness is there to hopefully lead to breakthroughs in the future
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