Karen Millen

Dec 21, 2022

Karen Millen is a British online fashion retailer and clothing retail company founded in 1981 by Karen Millen and Kevin Stanford and headquartered in Witney, Oxfordshire, England.

Karen Millen offers thoughtful styles with exceptional design, creative talent and craftsmanship. It focuses on enduring style and the utmost quality to only create pieces you'll wear and love for years to come.

Karen Millen sells clothing, accessories, shoes, occasionwear, and jewelry. The British fashion group Boohoo owns Karen Millen and many other unique brands, including Burton, Oasis, Dorothy Perkins, Coast, Nasty Gal, PrettyLittleThing, and more.

Karen Millen offers an eco-friendly collection for women and helps you with ways to shop more sustainably. It uses lower-impact materials and innovative processes to make them better for the planet.

Karen Millen makes clothes from recycled and more responsibly sourced materials. It hopes to reduce its environmental impact by using more sustainably sourced materials.

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Sustainability Rating: 2/10

Rating FAQ

Category: Clothing, accessories, shoes, bags, jewelry

For: Women

Type: Basics, denim, dresses, knitwear, loungewear, swimwear, outerwear, nightwear, underwear, maternity, bridal, flats, sandals, heels, boots, sneakers

Style: Classic, chic, formal

Quality: Low

Price: $

Sizes: petite, XS-2XL, 0-14 (US), 2-16 (UK), 32-44 (EU), 4-18 (AU), plus size

Fabrics: Cotton, linen, ramie, jute, lyocell, modal, viscose, acetate, polyester, nylon, spandex, polyethylene, acrylic, neoprene, polyurethane, rubber, leather, wool, silk, down

100% Organic: No

100% Vegan: No

Ethical & Fair: No

Recycling: Yes

Producing country: Albania, Bangladesh, Brasil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Cyprus, Egypt, Estonia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, South Korea, Madagascar, Mauritius, Moldova, Morocco, Myanmar, Pakistan, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Vietnam

Certifications: no certification

Sustainability Practices

Karen Millen is committed to strengthening its corporate governance, environmental footprint, and social impact. It focuses on setting a new industry-wide standard for ethical supply chains.

Karen Millen takes wide-ranging measures to bring change for sustainable growth that benefits all stakeholders. It wants to run a more responsible business and improve its impact on people and the environment.

The fashion retailer tackles priority issues like climate change, responsible marketing, sustainable design, waste and supply chain management, and community involvement.

Karen Millen only uses a small proportion of organic materials, such as organic cotton and linen, or recycled materials, such as recycled polyester and regenerated nylon.

Karen Millen dedicates very few of its collections to sustainable fashion. "Ready For The Future" is its collection of sustainable clothing pieces and plan for doing more for its clothes, suppliers, communities, and impact on the environment.

Most of the fabrics it uses are either natural without relevant certifications, such as cotton or linen, or synthetic petroleum-based fibers, such as polyester, nylon, acrylic, and more.

Karen Millen also uses a small amount of semi-synthetic fibers or regenerated cellulosic fabrics such as Tencel lyocell, modal, acetate, and viscose.

Tencel is an eco-friendly fiber made with wood pulp from certified sustainable forests. But only a tiny proportion of the materials used by Karen Millen are environmentally friendly and sustainable.

Karen Millen publishes a list of all its manufacturers on the corporate website of its parent organization, boohooplc.com. It aims to create great jobs, look after its people, and support local communities.

Karen Millen manufactures its clothes in China and many other East Asian countries, where human rights and labor law violations still happen every day.

The clothing retailer doesn't show any labor certification standard that ensures good working conditions, decent living wages, health, safety, and other crucial rights for workers in its supply chain.

Karen Millen has a Code of Conduct that applies to all its suppliers and subcontractors to understand the risks facing workers and make positive changes throughout its supply chain.

Karen Millen assesses compliance with its Code of Conduct by informal visits. It works with a team of experts to improve the working conditions in its factories.

Karen Millen is part of industry initiatives such as the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, Sustainable Clothing Action Plan, and the Microfibre Consortium.

Karen Millen doesn't use exotic animal skin, hair, fur, or angora. But it uses leather, wool, silk, and down feathers to manufacture many clothing pieces.

These animal-derived materials are cruel and unethical. They also harm the environment by producing greenhouse gases and waste. More sustainable alternatives exist.

Sustainability Goals

Karen Millen has committed to reducing its environmental impact across the entire supply chain. It plans to make all customer garment packaging reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2023.

Karen Millen also aims for a 50% recycled content minimum for any plastic used. All its polyester and cotton will be recycled or more sustainably sourced by 2025.

Karen Millen has committed to more sustainable sourcing of all the materials it uses in its garments by 2030. By 2025, all 50% of its man-made cellulosic fibers will be more sustainably sourced.

Karen Millen will have introduced design innovations to reduce waste, increase durability and improve recyclability by 2025.

Karen Millen plans to map its raw materials supply chain for key fibers and continues disclosing its supplier information and improves its purchasing practices by 2023.

Karen Millen will be developing its plans on water, chemicals, biodiversity, and microfibers by 2023.

Buy Here

Discover Karen Millen's sustainable collections at KarenMillen.com.

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What We're Up Against

Multinational corporations overproducing cheap products in the poorest countries.
Huge factories with sweatshop-like conditions underpaying workers.
Media conglomerates promoting unethical, unsustainable products.
Bad actors encouraging overconsumption through oblivious behavior.
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