Christopher Raeburn has closed both his East London store and the e-commerce section of his website in protest of Black Friday. The British designer, who is known for his long-standing focus on sustainability, announced the news via Instagram this morning.
“Black Friday, quite frankly, represents everything that needs to be challenged with the industry,” Raeburn told us. “We need to shift mindsets around the world that quality and value comes at a price and that inflated pricing and, sometimes, fake discounting isn’t the answer to everything. It’s important that we work together as an industry, but also as individuals, because I think Black Friday often pushes people to buy unnecessary items with money that they often can’t afford.”
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On previous Black Fridays, the designer has used the event as an excuse to donate a portion of proceeds to charity or to contribute to the community. For example, in 2017 the brand hosted its popular snow leopard-making workshop and donated the profits to the Snow Leopard Foundation.
“We wanted to do something more radical this year as Black Friday has really started to escalate and, for a company with real purpose, we wanted to challenge ourselves and the industry to think a little differently,” he explained.
Raeburn will reopen both retail outlets tomorrow. He also invites the public to join him and his team tomorrow, 23 November, for a live demonstration of Remade Shark Making at the Raeburn store, in which the label’s seamstress will create a cuddly toy shark from recycled blankets, which are then available to buy for £175. The idea is to give consumers a better understanding of the brand’s philosophy and its responsible approach to design.
Since the label’s inception in 2010, Raeburn has pioneered the way for sustainable, mindful fashion long before it became a popular idea. His clothes are characterised not only by their innovative recycling techniques, but also his affinity for military and utilitarian styles.
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“On a simple level, it’s about buying less but better,” says Raeburn on how we should approach shopping. “Think about investing in a quality item that is going to last for as long as possible. We offer free repairs of Raeburn garments to encourage our customers to keep their clothes for as long as possible.”
In 2017, it was predicted that 235 million of items of Britons’ unwanted clothing would end up in a landfill. People, on average, discard an average of 19 wardrobe pieces every year, rather than recycle or donate to charity.
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