Is Looksky Fast Fashion? How Ethical & Sustainable is Looksky

Looksky is fast fashion. Explore their rapid trend replication and high production volumes. Uncover the brand's impact on ethics and sustainability.
Written by: 
Ash Read
Last updated: 

Yes, Looksky is a fast fashion brand. Its entire business model is built on rapid trend replication, high production volumes, and low prices, which are defining characteristics of fast fashion.

The brand's ethical practices are severely lacking due to an opaque supply chain and a failure to ensure living wages for its workers. From a sustainability perspective, it relies almost entirely on fossil fuel-based synthetic materials and has no meaningful environmental or circularity initiatives in place. Here's what you need to know about Looksky's practices:

What Makes Looksky Fast Fashion?

Looksky operates with a classic fast fashion model, prioritizing speed-to-market and high turnover to capitalize on fleeting social media trends.

  • Rapid New Arrivals: The brand adds over 150 new styles to its website every month, with new collections dropping every two to three weeks. This production speed is designed to encourage constant customer engagement and frequent, impulse-driven purchases.
  • High Production Volume: Looksky manufactures an estimated 4 to 5 million clothing items annually. This massive scale contributes to overproduction and excess waste, hallmarks of the fast fashion industry.
  • Rock-Bottom Pricing: With T-shirts priced at $10-$15 and dresses ranging from $20-$35, Looksky's affordability is built on the use of cheap materials and low-cost labor, making the clothing feel disposable to consumers.
  • Speed-Focused Supply Chain: It takes Looksky just 3 to 4 weeks to move a design from the concept stage to store shelves. This rapid turnaround is achieved by manufacturing in low-cost regions like Bangladesh, China, and Vietnam, where expediency often comes at the expense of worker welfare and environmental standards.
  • Trend Replication: Looksky's design strategy focuses on quickly copying styles seen on runways and social media rather than creating original designs. This allows them to churn out trend-focused items without investing in long-term design innovation.

Is Looksky Ethical?

Looksky's ethical record is poor, primarily due to a severe lack of transparency and evidence of worker exploitation within its supply chain.

Labor Practices

Looksky manufactures in countries with documented labor rights issues, including Bangladesh and Vietnam. Reports from third-party auditors have revealed factory workers enduring excessive hours, often over 60 per week, for wages far below a living wage. For instance, some workers in Bangladesh earn just $180-$200 per month, while the estimated local living wage is closer to $400.

Supply Chain Transparency

The brand offers almost no transparency into its supply chain. It does not publish a list of its suppliers, factory locations, or the results of its factory audits. This lack of disclosure makes it impossible for consumers or watchdog groups to verify claims about worker safety or fair labor practices.

Animal Welfare

Looksky's product line is largely free from common animal products like fur and leather. However, when it does use materials like wool or down, it provides no certifications such as the Responsible Wool Standard (RWS) or Responsible Down Standard (RDS) to ensure the animals were treated humanely.

Where Looksky Falls Short Ethically

  • Failure to Pay a Living Wage: There is no evidence Looksky pays a living wage at any point in its supply chain. The documented wages are significantly below what is required for workers to meet their basic needs.
  • Complete Lack of Transparency: The brand does not disclose any meaningful information about its factories, audit processes, or corrective actions, preventing any form of accountability.
  • Unsafe Working Conditions: Third-party audits from organizations like the Fair Factories Clearinghouse (FFC) have uncovered safety violations, unpaid overtime, and poor working conditions in factories suspected of supplying Looksky.

Is Looksky Sustainable?

Looksky’s business model is fundamentally unsustainable, relying on environmentally harmful materials and contributing to a culture of disposability.

Materials & Sourcing

Looksky’s collections are made from 85-90% synthetic, fossil fuel-based fibers like polyester and nylon, which are major contributors to microplastic pollution and are not biodegradable. The brand shows no use of sustainable alternatives like organic cotton, linen, or recycled materials, and lacks any certifications such as GOTS or the Global Recycled Standard (GRS).

Environmental Impact

The company provides no data on its carbon footprint, water usage, or chemical management. Manufacturing synthetic fabrics is a chemical- and energy-intensive process, and factories in the regions where Looksky operates are known for discharging untreated wastewater filled with toxic dyes and microfibers into local ecosystems.

Circularity & Waste

Looksky has no take-back, recycling, or repair programs to manage its products at the end of their life. Its cheap construction and low-quality materials ensure a short lifespan, encouraging consumers to dispose of garments after only a few wears. Packaging is predominantly single-use plastic, with no meaningful effort to use recycled or biodegradable alternatives.

Sustainability Goals & Progress

The brand has not published any sustainability goals, science-based targets, or timelines for environmental improvement. Vague statements on its website about "becoming more eco-friendly" are unsupported by any concrete action or evidence, pointing to greenwashing.

Where Looksky Falls Short on Sustainability

  • Overwhelming Use of Virgin Synthetics: With up to 90% of its materials being derived from fossil fuels, the brand is directly contributing to climate change and plastic pollution.
  • No End-of-Life Solutions: Looksky follows a linear "take-make-waste" model, with zero initiatives to promote recycling, repair, or circularity.
  • Absence of Tangible Commitments: The lack of any published goals, progress reports, or relevant certifications demonstrates a complete disregard for its environmental impact.

Our Verdict: Looksky's Ethical & Sustainability Grades

Looksky’s business practices prioritize profit and rapid growth at the significant expense of its workers and the environment. Its model is a textbook example of the harmful impacts of fast fashion.

Ethical Practices: D

Looksky receives a D for its profound lack of supply chain transparency and failure to provide evidence of living wages or safe working conditions. While it mostly avoids controversial animal materials, its opaque operations make it impossible to verify any positive claims, and the available data points to worker exploitation. There is an urgent need for accountability and disclosure.

Sustainability: F

Looksky's sustainability performance earns an F. The brand's near-total reliance on virgin, fossil fuel-based synthetics, absence of any circularity programs, and complete lack of public environmental targets or data indicate a fundamentally unsustainable business model. Its practices actively contribute to pollution, waste, and overconsumption without any meaningful effort to mitigate harm.

Ethical & Sustainable Alternatives to Looksky

If you're concerned about Looksky's poor ethical and environmental record, consider these brands that prioritize responsible production and offer higher-quality, lasting styles.

Patagonia

Patagonia is a B Corp and a leader in environmental stewardship, using recycled materials, organic cotton, and Fair Trade Certified factories. The brand is famous for its durable outdoor gear and its "Worn Wear" program that promotes repair and resale to fight overconsumption.

Shop now at patagonia.com

Veja

Veja is a footwear and accessories brand known for its extreme transparency and use of innovative, sustainable materials like wild Amazonian rubber and recycled plastic bottles. The brand pays fair prices for its raw materials and ensures ethical manufacturing in Brazil.

Shop now at veja-store.com

People Tree

A pioneer in ethical fashion, People Tree is 100% Fair Trade Certified and uses sustainable materials like GOTS-certified organic cotton. The brand partners with artisans and farmers in developing countries to create beautiful, handcrafted clothing while promoting fair labor practices.

Shop now at peopletree.co.uk

Eileen Fisher

As a certified B Corp, Eileen Fisher focuses on timeless design, sustainable fibers like organic linen and cotton, and a circular model. The brand's take-back program, "Renew," resells or remakes old garments to ensure nothing goes to waste.

Shop now at eileenfisher.com

Reformation

Reformation combines on-trend styles with a commitment to sustainability, operating its own factory in Los Angeles where it pays fair wages. The brand is Climate Neutral Certified and provides detailed "RefScale" impact reports for each garment, tracking its carbon and water footprint.

Shop now at thereformation.com

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Looksky so cheap?

Looksky's low prices are a direct result of its business model. The brand uses cheap, synthetic materials that cost very little to produce and relies on low-cost labor in factories where workers are paid well below a living wage. Its high-volume production creates economies of scale that further drive down costs.

Does Looksky have any eco-friendly collections?

No, Looksky has not released any dedicated eco-friendly or conscious collections. The material composition across all of its product lines remains overwhelmingly dependent on unsustainable, fossil fuel-based synthetics, with no tangible effort to incorporate recycled or organic alternatives.

Is Looksky better or worse than Shein?

Both Looksky and Shein operate on a nearly identical ultra-fast fashion model with significant ethical and environmental drawbacks. While specific data points might differ, their core business practices - rapid production cycles, extreme lack of transparency, and poor labor and environmental standards - place them in the same category of highly problematic brands.