Last week, fast fashion giant Boohoo said that it had signed the 43-year-old reality star as its newest sustainability-focused brand ambassador and that she will be designing two collections for the company with an environmental focus.

Users on social media were outraged to see a member of the Kardashian-Jenner family, known for their lavish lifestyle and private jets, being paid to endorse sustainable fashion, with many drawing comparisons to Burger King’s collaboration with a fitness endorser and calling it “utter BS,” “demeaning,” and “humiliating.”

On the day her collection was released, Tuesday, September 13th, Kardashian took to Instagram to respond to the criticism. She said, “I debated doing this collection with @boohoo since my initial reaction to the term ‘quick fashion is that it is detrimental to our earth.”

I was approached by Boohoo to become a sustainability ambassador, and while I was aware that this would be met with criticism due to the inherent incompatibility of fast fashion and sustainability, I ultimately accepted the position because I realized that neither fast fashion nor the fashion industry is going away anytime soon. There is still time for the relationship to impact consumers, says Kardashian.

I considered how this partnership could help educate people about the negative effects of fast fashion who might not have heard the problem before. She went on to explain that she had considered the potential effects of encouraging Boohoo to make some preliminary improvements and then holding them accountable for larger-scale reform.

And it’s generating a lot of noise, which is precisely what I was looking for. I don’t pretend to have all the ideas, but I take pride in the fact that I once collaborated on a fast fashion line with the idea of making positive improvements; that effort was met with little resistance because no one noticed I was even attempting. The founder of Poosh then extended an invitation to industry insiders with insightful feedback to get in touch.

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