Netflix's 'Buy Now!' Documentary Supports Climate Conscious Fashion House, LUEQ

Have you ever heard of a Climate Conscious Fashion House? Well, you’re in luck because I’m going to tell you about one. After finally taking the time to sit through the Netflix documentary Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy, written and directed by News and Documentary Emmy Award nominee Nic Stacey, I couldn’t help but think of LUEQ.

Last spring, a group of friends and I traveled through Europe for two months in what was, singlehandedly, the most eye-opening and enthralling experience of my life. During this time, I came across a small fashion boutique called The LUEQ, located in Lyons, France, and owned and operated by Edmund Blanc. After browsing the store for a bit with my friends, we spent a few hundred American dollars, and to say I have no regrets is an understatement. The quality of the clothing was superb—wool, silk, cashmere.

Then it dawned on me that, despite having an enormous amount of space in the store, the owner did not pack it wall to wall with garments. So, I had to ask, “Why does the store appear…empty?” Mr. Blanc replied ever so kindly, “I am a family man. I want my grandkids to live to see the planet I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying for the last fifty-seven years.” In that moment, just being a girl on vacation, it didn’t really click with me. So, I paid for my things and asked for his website, to which he smiled and said, “No website.”

I thought, well, that’s a bummer.

Once I returned and got back to work, we had our regularly scheduled Monday morning meeting with Lisa and the senior editors. Funny enough, we were discussing different fashion looks I could cover in a piece I was working on about tips for shopping on Shein for the fall season. It almost felt like fate when the Editor-in-Chief asked about my trip!

Oddly enough, despite all the wonderful places I had gone to and the sights I’d seen, I wanted more than anything to tell her about The LUEQ (pronounced "Look"). She was intrigued, and Lisa being Lisa (IYKYK), she asked for their address, sent Edmund a letter, traveled to the store, and two months later bought a share in the company. She is now listed as a co-founder.

Lisa’s first task was to take the company online—e-commerce—and expand the publication into fashion with our VEGAN line. She’s SINGLE Magazine’s VEGAN x The LUEQ will be out this fall. Not only that, but Lisa has agreed to oversee the online store while Mr. Blanc continues to run his brick-and-mortar location in Lyons.

Fast forward to today, The LUEQ is labeled as one of the first Climate Conscious Fashion Houses. A CCFH means that each material for the online store is hand-selected to reduce waste and avoid health concerns associated with unsafe fabrics. Their commitment to sustainability also ensures that no item will be removed from the store until it is sold out—this guarantees that nothing will be wastefully discarded, burned, or ripped.

Restocking will take some time based on demand, but Lisa promised they will continuously introduce fresh designs to keep the collection exciting and relevant. Thanks for making it through my story… now onto the documentary. Capitalism is simple: we make it, you buy it, and when it breaks, you buy it again. It’s no different than the healthcare system in America—we make you sick, you pay for the cure.

While watching the documentary, all I could think about was how much times have changed. As a millennial, I’ll admit that in my twenties, I needed to have the latest of everything—technology, clothes, etc. But now that I’m older, I’ve noticed that I couldn’t care less about having any of that. I prefer memories with good people and meeting hardworking boomers like Mr. Blanc while traveling abroad.

Not only that, but while it’s easy to blame consumerism on capitalism and CEOs’ greed, the other factor that so many seem to miss is peer pressure and social inclusion. No one wants to feel isolated or like they can’t afford the latest gadget or their Netflix subscription to watch the newest show trending on X. We all want to be included in the conversation, and the only thing these corporations have managed to do is sell their products to enough influential people that they can influence the masses.

The content creator and influencer industry is a billion-dollar industry, and for good reason—we shop because we want to fit in. The Stanley cups are the perfect example of this! Is it bad that a company like Amazon has managed to convince consumers that every single thing they need can be found on their website and shipped to them within 24 hours? No. The goal of every business is to make a profit, and in cases like this, we’re still insisting on holding one person accountable for the purchasing power and decision-making of millions of consumers.

Companies like LUEQ will have a hard time breaking into the industry. As one Twitter user wrote, “There’s barely any clothes for sale.” Barely any clothes versus 10,000 items in inventory to push to consumers—where about 65% of it will end up in a landfill and further destroy the planet—is not a concept familiar to the average spender. They are used to sites like Skims and Shein, where the options are endless, so much so that you can get tired of scrolling. But that is actually bad—very bad.
Thankfully, this documentary dives into different areas of spending and how corporations have created their items so that they are always needed by their consumers. If the phone works all the time, then there’s never a need to replace it, and the same can be said for the headphones and laptops. But do we always need the latest? And if the old products are being purposely made defective by the manufacturer, wouldn’t that make them untrustworthy and someone you shouldn’t want to spend your money with anyway?

Americans are in a toxic relationship with money, and corporations are the third party in that relationship. Why buy Apple if they break your old phone and force you to get a new one? Social acceptance. Why shop with Shein when you know they’re manufacturing millions of items per month, which is bad for the environment and your health? Social acceptance.

We constantly hear Americans saying, “Stop telling us to work more when the wages don’t match the cost of living!” But the truth is, low self-esteem and a constant need for external validation are what’s keeping you poor. Shopping on sites like LUEQ, where the inventory is slim, is unacceptable to the average consumer because it does not seem legit—where is the inventory, and why isn’t this company trying to destroy the planet like all the others? “I can’t impress anyone with this; let me move on…”
Shein: “We mass manufacture polyester items, and if you don’t buy our cheap stuff, it will go into a landfill and slowly continue to kill the planet.”
Them: “Stop killing the planet!”
Shein: “Sale now! 85% off $100.”
Them: “Let me get my credit card.”

Need I say more?

All in all, this was a great documentary, but I find it quite contradictory that a streaming platform would paywall information every consumer should have access to, regardless of whether they can afford Netflix or not. Netflix, do you want to save the planet or just continue stacking your library with content to keep your own pockets lined?

by Samara Morris