PrettyLittleThing has been blasted for raving about David Attenborough's Instagram debut after critics said the fast fashion brand 'goes against everything he stands for'.
The veteran broadcaster sent the internet into a frenzy when he joined the social media site last week and has amassed some 4.7 million followers in a matter of days.
The online retailer shared a screenshot of Sir David's account across social media last Thursday, but swiftly deleted it following a backlash.
It posted: 'David Attenborough is now on Instagram and we are here for it' along with animal emojis and heart-eyed emojis.
However, social media users were quick to criticise the 'ironic' post, which no longer appears on PLT's pages.
Fast fashion, where clothes are bought on the cheap but then quickly cast aside as trends change, has been slammed for its negative impact on the environment.
PrettyLittleThing has been blasted for raving about the Instagram debut of David Attenborough, pictured, after critics said the fast fashion brand 'goes against everything he stands for'
Fast fashion, where clothes are bought on the cheap but then quickly cast aside as trends change, has been slammed for its negative impact on the environment. Pictured: A model in a PrettyLittleThing dress
The industry as a whole produces one tenth of the world's carbon emissions and has long been accused of polluting oceans with micro plastics - tiny but harmful fibres from synthetic clothing.
PLT was also one of a number of fast fashion retailers contacted by the government's environmental audit committee, and asked to give information on staff wages, the life-cycle of garments sold, and strategies for the reduction of the environmental and social impact of their business.
The brand has since made some strides towards an environmentally-friendly approach, namely through its partnership with recycling app Regain, which allows shoppers to donate unwanted clothes at hundreds of pick-up points in return for discount codes that can be used with any of the app's retail partners.
Nevertheless, critics took to social media in their droves, including musician Sarah Talbot from Dublin.
She shared a screengrab of the PLT post saying: 'It's the fast fashion brands celebrating David Attenborough's Instagram page for me.'
Her tweet, which racked up more than 8,000 likes, sparked outrage from fellow social media users.
One wrote: 'The irony that they're fast fashion is horrific for the environment & goes against everything he stands for.'
Another added: 'Dystopia. They'll have his face on $2 crop tops soon.'
To which a user replied: 'And a second free if you use coupon code 'extinction.'
Emily Harlow branded the move 'gross' and Aisyah Wan added: 'If PLT are so 'here for it', why don't they change their business model to become more ethical and sustainable?'
Earlier this summer, Priti Patel told Britain's FBI to investigate Boohoo, the fashion chain which bought the remaining stake in PLT in May, over claims they were using an alleged £3.50-an-hour sweatshop in Leicester to produce cheap clothing during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Home Secretary stepped in and instructed the National Crime Agency to probe the issues amid claims the factories were operating without social distancing measures in place with workers not all wearing masks.
Critics took to social media in their droves, including musician Sarah Talbot from Dublin
One said: 'The irony that they're fast fashion is horrific for the environment and goes against everything he stands for'
Another added: 'Dystopia. They'll have his face on $2 crop tops soon' as someone else replied: 'And a second free if you use coupon code EXTINCTION'
Ms Patel called the allegations 'truly appalling' and vowed to clamp down on modern slavery in Britain.
Boohoo was contacted for comment at the time.
Sir David joined Instagram last Thursday and recently smashed Jennifer Aniston's record for the fastest time to reach one million followers.
His documentary Extinction aired earlier this month, focusing on the devastation humans are wreaking on the environment.
Meanwhile, Malta's Culture Minister has backed down after initially demanding the return of a fossilised giant shark's tooth gifted by Sir David to Prince George.
Jose Herrera said yesterday that he was looking into whether the tooth from an extinct Carcharocles megalodon should be returned to the country but has now said he will take it no further.
According to Keep Britain Tidy, fast fashion is responsible for 10,000 items of clothing being sent to landfill every five minutes.
The charity says this equates to £140 million in value every year.
PrettyLittleThing declined to comment.
The Indian-born billionaire and his playboy son who began the Boohoo fast fashion brand from a Manchester market stall
Mahmud Kamani, pictured right, alongside his son, didn't want to spoil his children, but helped them set up Pretty Little Thing
Mahmud Kamani, 55, started out running a Manchester market stall and launched Boohoo in 2006, now worth £2.6 billion, with his son Adam on board.
Mahmud's other son Umar, 32, is CEO of clothes retailer PrettyLittleThing, which his father's Boohoo Group bought a 34 per cent stake in for £269.8 million in May.
The billionaire clothes retailer's own father Abdullah Kamani went to school in Gujurat, India. He moved the family to Kenya, where many Indian families had prospered in the British Empire.
Mahmud was born there in 1964, but four years later the Kamanis were forced to flee to Britain by increasing unrest and draconian employment laws that favoured native Kenyans.
They settled in Manchester, where the entrepreneurial Abdullah sold handbags on a market stall to feed his family, before investing in property and founding the wholesale textile business Pinstripe, where Mahmud worked, using family connections in India to source garments.
By the early 2000s, the firm was selling nearly £50 million of clothing a year to High Street names such as New Look, Primark and Philip Green’s Topshop.
Umar Kamani CEO & Founder PrettyLittleThing.com posted this image on his instagram page of him on his Rolls-Royce Dawn in Beverly Hills
Umar Kamani, pictured with Tulisa Contostavlos, is regularly seen mixing with celebrities
Spotting the potential in the growth of the internet, Mahmud set up his online retailer in 2006 that would deliver their own-branded fashion at rock bottom prices, starting out with just three staff and operating out of a Manchester warehouse.
Today it has a workforce of over 1,000, and celebrity advocates including everyone from Little Mix to Tallia Storm.
Tatler named Umar Kamani its eighth most eligible bachelor for 2019, alongside the Duke of Roxburghe and former One Direction star Harry Styles.
His lifestyle is decidedly jet-set, with his contacts book brimming with A-list stars such as Jennifer Lopez, rapper P Diddy and actor Denzel Washington. Such is his self-belief that when he wanted to launch PLT in the US three years ago, he offered a six-figure sum to reality TV star Kylie Jenner, half-sister of Kim Kardashian, to appear in one of his £15 orange dresses.
‘It’s all about the hustle,’ he says, with a shrug. ‘I knew I wanted to be in those circles because I’m obsessed with power.’
Popular girl band Little Mix, pictured, launched a Pretty Little Thing collection last year
Power duly followed. The Kylie Jenner coup led to sales increasing ten-fold and allowed him to buy a seven-bedroom mansion in the Hollywood Hills, complete with basketball court.
His Instagram account reveals the very caricature of a playboy – lunching at Nobu in Malibu wearing Gucci slippers, hanging out with P Diddy at the Grammys and Kylie Jenner at Coachella music festival, and posing at the wheel of a yacht on Italy’s Amalfi Coast.
‘A lot of these people are my friends,’ he says. ‘Will.I.Am is a really good mate – we FaceTime nearly every day – as is P Diddy. I was at the LA Lakers game with Denzel Washington a few weeks ago too.’
Love Island stars such as Molly-Mae Hague and girl band Little Mix are among the celebrities to have publicly endorsed the Pretty Little Thing brand in recent years, with other celebrities including Kylie Jenner, Khloe Kardashian, Nicole Scherzinger and Paris Hilton also seen wearing the label.
It has helped 32-year-old Umar Kamani, regularly seen enjoying a luxurious lifestyle on Instagram, develop a personal wealth of more than £1 billion.
His wealth has allowed him to buy a fleet of cars, including two Rolls-Royce Phantoms, a £300,000 Lamborghini Aventador, a £92,000 customised G-Class Mercedes and a high-end Range Rover.
Malta backs down on demand that fossilised shark tooth given to Prince George by David Attenborough is returned
Malta's Culture Minister has backed down after initially demanding the return of a fossilised giant shark's tooth gifted by Sir David Attenborough to Prince George.
Jose Herrera said yesterday that he was looking into whether the tooth from an extinct Carcharocles megalodon should be returned to the country but has now said he will take it no further.
A spokesman for the ministry for national heritage, arts and local government said: 'The minister would like to note that with reference to this case, it is not the intention to pursue this matter any further.
'Minister Herrera has absolutely no doubt that young Prince George will grow to become a fond admirer of Malta's rich natural history.'
Malta has demanded the return of a fossilised giant shark's tooth that Sir David Attenborough gave to Prince George (left with the tooth) as a gift to mark their first meeting at Kensington Palace
Sir David presented his gift after he attended a private viewing - held in the palace's grounds - of A Life On Our Planet, his new environmental documentary. Socially distanced in the open air, the Duke of Cambridge and Sir David were offered directors' chairs with their names printed on the back - but in a change of plan they sat in each other's seats
The tooth given to the prince once belonged to a megalodon (artistic rendering pictured), an extinct species of giant shark that could grow up to 52 feet
Is it illegal to fossil hunt in Malta?
According to Malta's 2002 Cultural Heritage Act palaeontological finds - including fossils - form part of the country's cultural heritage.
They are dubbed a 'movable or immovable object of geological importance'.
It is considered an offence to remove or excavate them without permission.
Furthermore, section 70 of Malta's Cultural Heritage Act states that it is an offence for anyone to 'receive or retain any cultural property knowing that it has been illegally removed in Malta or illegally exported from any other country'.
Should anyone break that law, they could be liable to a €2,000 (£1,814) fine, up to six years in prison or both.
Before the 2002 act, Malta's cultural heritage was protected by the 1925 Antiquities Act.
Prince George, seven, was photographed looking intrigued as he handled the fossilised tooth from a megalodon - one of the most feared predators to have swum in the seas.
Sir David said he found the 23-million-year-old tooth embedded in soft limestone while on holiday in Malta in the late 1960s.
The country was a British colony until 1964 and the Queen was its head of state until 1974.
The Maltese Culture Minister Mr Herrera said yesterday that the tooth should be in a local museum and promised to 'set the ball rolling' to get it back.
'There are some artefacts that are important to Maltese natural heritage and which ended up abroad and deserve to be retrieved,' Herrera told the Times of Malta, without giving details of how he intended to recover the fossil.
If found in good condition, the teeth of a Carcharocles megalodon are highly-valued by fossil collectors.
This is especially true of teeth larger than five inches - a highly uncommon find - which can be sold for several thousand dollars.
Sir David presented his gift after he attended a private viewing - held in the palace's grounds - of A Life On Our Planet, his new environmental documentary.
Fossil hunting in Malta is strictly regulated and retrieving and excavating them without permission goes against the country's 2002 Cultural Heritage Act.
All palaeontological finds are considered a 'movable or immovable object of geological importance' and form part of the country's cultural heritage.
A Life On Our Planet offers a revealing and powerful first-hand account in which Sir David reflects on both the defining moments of his life as a naturalist and the devastating changes he has witnessed.
Socially distanced in the open air, the Duke of Cambridge and Sir David were offered directors' chairs with their names printed on the back - but in a change of plan they sat in each other's seats.
Sir David chatted to William, Kate and their three children George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis after the screening.
William interviewed Sir David at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last year, and during the discussion the broadcaster warned that humanity needed to act so that they did not 'annihilate part of the natural world'.
Sir David Attenborough has given Prince George a fossilised giant shark's tooth to mark their first meeting at Kensington Palace, after discovering the young royal was a 'massive fan'
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge also previously met the conservationist in September 2019 at Birkenhead , for the naming ceremony of the polar research ship the RRS Sir David Attenborough, with the encounter appearing in the upcoming ITV documentary, Prince William: A Planet For Us All
WHAT WAS THE CARCHAROCLES MEGALODON AND WHY DID IT BECOME EXTINCT?
Jaws may have terrified you at the cinema, but the iconic great white would have been dwarfed by Carcharocles megalodon, the largest shark in the history of the planet.
The giant creatures lived between 23million and 2.6million years ago and scientists are divided over how and why the species perished.
The predator grew up to an incredible 59 feet (18 metres) long, and it used its giant teeth, that could grow up to 7.1 inches (18cm) to feed on smaller marine mammals.
In the past, climate changes have generally been blamed for its disappearance, while some research also suggested the giant shark became extinct because the diversity of its prey decreased and new predators appeared as competitors.
The ancient shark has been described as a super predator, because it could swim at high speeds and kill a wide variety of prey such as sea turtles and whales, quickly in its strong jaws.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge also previously met the conservationist in September 2019 at Birkenhead, for the naming ceremony of the polar research ship the RRS Sir David Attenborough, with the encounter appearing in the upcoming ITV documentary, Prince William: A Planet For Us All.
Two images were released by the palace to mark the occasion, with the first showing Sir David as he met with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, both 38, and their children.
Dressed in a dapper suit, the 94-year-old naturalist, who hit headlines recently after joining Instagram, is seen standing a safe distance from the family who are gathered around a bench in their gardens - with Kate looking resplendent in a cotton denim shirt dress, thought to be by Gabriela Hearst, costing £1295.
Kate, who once again matched her children to her fashion choice, with the whole family wearing various shades of blue, recently revealed that her youngsters were 'massive fans' of Sir David, and were disappointed they didn’t get to meet the national treasure during their parents' catch up with him for ITV documentary, Prince William: A Planet For Us All.
In a new clip to promote the royal's programme - which shows his passion for the planet and search for ways to restore the environment for the next generation - Prince William is seen greeting the broadcaster by saying: 'Here’s a recognised face,' while Kate admits that George, Charlotte and Louis are disappointed to not be in attendance.
The duchess, who revealed in lockdown that her eldest son was often watching David Attenborough's Blue Planet, says: 'The children were very upset that we were coming to see you and they weren’t coming. They’re massive fans of yours.'
With a shared passion for protecting the natural world, William and Sir David continue to support each other in their mission to tackle some of the biggest environmental challenges the planet faces.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
