Next month ITV's Love Island will finally return to our screens. It's the moment we've all been waiting for, and means summer will have officially started.
But this year, fans of the show will notice a huge difference in what the contestants are wearing. In previous years, we've seen fast fashion brands like ISAWITFIRST sponsor the show, and as such, that's what the contestants wore.
But this year, for the first time, Love Island's stars will be forced to wear second hand clothes as the show has partnered up with eBay. eBay UK has recruited celebrity stylist and secondhand enthusiast, Amy Bannerman , to style this year’s Islanders. Amy has styled celebrities such as Dua Lipa, Rita Ora, Sophie Turner, Jonathan Van Ness and Lena Dunham.
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eBay shared the news on its social media accounts, and has since been flooded with praise. Fans are calling it 'amazing', and have thanked both Love Island and ITV for promoting sustainable fashion.
k8s.upd8s wrote: "Yess eBay, we love to see a bit of fashion sustainability encouragement." sistersister.preloved commented: "This is incredible!!!!! I’ve said it every year “I wish the islanders would wear preloved clothes” - I can’t believe you’re making it happen. This is HUGE. HUGE!!!!"
kroconscious said: "This makes me want to be an islander now." mschakraverty commented: "T his is so brilliant!"
wave.socials praised: "Hopefully this changes the conversation and encourages less fast fashion & more sustainable, pre-loved purchases." thisenglishhome gushed: "This is so so exciting guys well done! I always think the endless promotion of damaging fast fashion on these shows is so dangerous so I’m so relieved to see this."
Jemma Tadd, Head of Fashion at eBay UK said: “We’re so excited to partner with Love Island this year and put pre-loved fashion, centrestage. The impact of Love Island and its stars across the UK is undeniable and together we want to inspire the nation to choose pre-loved first when shopping - even if this means buying or selling one or two pre-loved items to start with, it’s a step in the right direction. We can’t wait to change the conversation and dress the Islanders in pre-loved outfits for the very first time.”
Mike Spencer, Executive Producer of Love Island, said: "We are thrilled to be pairing up with eBay this year as our pre-loved fashion partner. As a show we strive to be a more eco-friendly production with more focus on ways in which we can visibly show this on screen. This partnership will see our Islanders get to dive into the shared wardrobes and help themselves to some incredible pre-loved clothes sourced from eBay. We aim to inspire our demographic and show that there are incredible finds to be had and how sharing is, in some small way, caring."
As well as eBay, some small sustainable businesses have also been asked to provide outfits for this year's show. One of those brands is MARS THE LABEL - a label which has been built here in Manchester.
MARS is run by CEO Arianna Ajtar - who is good friends with one of Love Island's most stylish ever contestants, Mary Bedford. Mary recently launched a highly demanded collaboration with the brand, and it's almost a complete sell out .
On the news, owner and CEO Arianna Ajtar said: "Love island is the UK’s biggest reality tv show so it’s an amazing opportunity for the brand, I’m over the moon to be dressing all the girls ready for a hot girl summer this season. Mars The Label is a perfect fit for love island & it hopefully sends a really powerful message to viewers and other females in business that anything is possible for a self made start up brand."
