The fashion and beauty brands supporting Australian wildlife relief

As wildfires continue to devastate Australia in an environmental catastrophe that has already killed over one billion animals, the fashion and beauty industry is sounding the alarm.

As of yesterday, a horrifying 25 million acres of land have been lost to the wildfires that continue to tear through Australia at an unprecedented rate. If you’re wondering, that’s an area larger than South Korea, and the situation is currently so dire that smoke can be seen from space.

It’s the worst ecological crisis in the country’s modern history and a terrifying insight into how climate change will impact our planet in years to come if we don’t strive to make drastic changes. However, on a slightly more positive note, there’s been a huge international outpouring of financial support since the fires began, with celebrities and viral fundraiser campaigns coming together to do what they can to help.

Various fashion and beauty brands are also publicly committing to the cause, such as luxury conglomerate Kering (Gucci, Saint Laurent, and Alexander McQueen etc.) which just donated AUD $1 million to local organisations and their relief efforts.

Kering also promised to introduce initiatives (though they haven’t specified what yet) to tackle the disaster and stated that it’ll be participating in future reforestation and biodiversity programmes as part of the sustainability-focused Fashion Pact it signed in 2019.

One of the main houses of the Kering group showing its support is Balenciaga. Following reports that 30% of koalas may have been killed in several regions of Australia so far, the French label has unveiled a capsule collection to raise money for those fighting the crisis.