A video showing several garments being discarded on the streets is circulating with a false claim that it shows Americans discarding their clothes in protest against Zara, a luxury fashion brand, after its ad campaign was deemed offensive to Palestinians in the war-hit Gaza strip.
BOOM found that the video shows glimpses of a campaign by a luxury reseller site Vestiaire Collective to announce a ban on major fashion brands and the concept of fast fashion. The ban was in protest against the amount of daily textile wastage created by these brands.
Zara, the international clothing brand, faced backlash over a series of photos showing mannequins resembling Islamic burial attire. The campaign, called 'The Jacket', received criticism worldwide, with allegations that it mocked the deaths of Palestinians. Zara later withdrew the campaign, expressing regret for the misunderstanding and mentioning that some customers interpreted it differently from their intent.
The video, which was shared on X (formerly Twitter), was captioned as, "After Zara made a disrespectful ad about the Gaza conflict, Americans are throwing away all their Zara clothes in front of the company."
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Fact Check
BOOM first conducted a reverse image search on one of the keyframes from the widely circulated video; the search led us to an Instagram post dated November 17, 2023. According to the caption, the campaign aimed at blocking fast fashion brands.
The caption of the post reads, "Vestiaire Collective Bans Fast Fashion On Its Platform: Vestiaire Collective is stepping up a fast fashion ban announced last year, blocking 30 new brands including Gap, H&M and Zara from its resale platform."
Taking a cue, we found that the video was posted by the official Instagram handle of Vestiaire Collective on November 16, 2023, with the caption, "Our Fast Fashion Ban campaign was launched on November 16th, nearly a month before the Zara Campaign. Vestiaire Collective encourages consumers to be more thoughtful about their purchases and refrain from buying brands like Zara, Uniqlo, Mango and to "Think First, Buy Second", which is the tagline of our initiative. The Fast Fashion Ban, now in its second year, is part of our mission to transform the fashion industry for a more sustainable future."
It further adds, "With 92 million tons of textiles sent to landfill every year, now’s the time to act. That’s why, from today, we’re banning another 30 fast fashion brands from Vestiaire Collective, including Zara, H&M, Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch, Mango, Urban Outfitters, and Uniqlo. Ready to join the movement?"
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Additionally, we came across a news article on Harper's Bazaar, a women's fashion magazine based in the US, covering the incident.
An excerpt from the report from November 17, 2023, reads, "Vestiaire Collective, one of the best-known luxury resale sites in the UK, is taking a further stand against fast fashion by banning a number of brands from appearing on its site. The retailer this week has announced that it would be introducing a definition-based criteria for what the platform considered to be fast fashion, which would be developed with a committee of fashion industry experts."
It also mentioned that the announcement was accompanied by the video shared on Vestiaire Collective's official Instagram account, illustrating the substantial volume of daily textile waste.