PrettyLittleThing collaboration with Naomi Campbell is already a disaster

Naomi Campbell is the very definition of an icon, a legendary woman in fashion, more a titan of the industry than a mere supermodel. And if over the years her now-legendary antics toward her staff (including phone-throwing, punching, and assaults of all sorts) have not tarnished her reputation, perhaps only now has something happened that can. Naomi has decided to collaborate with fast fashion brand PrettyLittleThing - and the Internet has not taken it well. Beyond the more obvious doubts regarding a collaboration between a major fashion personality and a fast fashion brand, many have also wondered whether the decision behind the signing of this contract was dictated by the supermodel's alleged financial problems. In this regard, independent critic Odunayo Ojo for example speculated in a tweet that «it seems she hasn’t made the best financial investments which is why she still has to walk all the time and is everywhere». Not knowing Campbell's situation these are, indeed, only suppositions-although it seems clear that it was profit, and not artistic inspiration, that led to the signing of the already infamous contract. 

The Internet shock, however, may not immediately translate into an economic rout - for every opponent of the collaboration, PrettyLittleThing has a dozen customers delighted to pay who don't give a damn about the harms of fast fashion. And it is frankly a bit jarring that Naomi is being criticized for this collaboration when almost everyone in fashion has signed similar ones: Iris Apfel, for example, collaborated long ago with H&M to general approval, and so have Mugler, Marni, J.W. Anderson and Ines de la Fressange have cheerfully collaborated with Uniqlo (which, no matter how acceptable it is considered, remains fast fashion) while both Rhuigi Villaseñor and Kaia Gerber have launched collaborations with Zara in the past year without anyone batting an eye. A tradition that many believe Karl Lagerfeld himself had started by also collaborating with H&M in 2004, a moment now considered a watershed rather than a tremendous ignominy. Why then this double standard against Naomi? The supermodel is not exactly a stranger to similar ventures, just remember the Naomi Campbell Jeans line launched in 1997 and the collaboration with Fiorucci in 2011. Today perhaps times have changed, and so to the attitudes of the public-except perhaps the spending models, as this collaboration will surely sell out immediately.