A $5,500 Gucci dress—made from polyester.
When I saw it—marketed as luxury, priced accordingly, made from the same fossil-fuel–derived material that dominates fast fashion—something clicked. Instead of rolling my eyes and moving on, I found myself asking a fundamental question:
What is a luxury item?
Which led to who defines luxury?
Luxury has always been a matter of perception—constructed through storytelling, context, and desire. But today, many of the world’s most powerful fashion houses sell synthetic materials derived from oil at extraordinary prices, while continuing to position themselves as arbiters of quality, taste, and value. The contradiction has become so normalized it’s nearly invisible.
Our campaign Is This a Luxury Item? was designed to interrupt that invisibility.
Across SoHo, Williamsburg, and the Lower East Side, oversized wheat-pasted posters appeared that, at first glance, resembled conventional fashion campaigns. Shot at Splashlight Studios with the polish and precision of high-end advertising, the images featured environmental advocates styled in luxury polyester garments. Only on closer inspection did the disruption reveal itself. Printed directly on each image were the two questions I had first asked: Is This a Luxury Item? and Who Defines Luxury
Suddenly, the familiar language of fashion advertising turned back on itself.
Reframing Influence
The campaign featured Alden Wicker, Christopher Griffin aka PlantKween, Kristy Drutman and Patrick Duffy—writers, activists, and cultural critics who already challenge the systems they were now visually inhabiting. By placing real advocates inside luxury’s aesthetic codes, the campaign questioned who gets to define value, authority, and aspiration.
Each poster connected via QR code to a video and microsite offering context on the environmental cost of synthetic materials and pointing toward regenerative alternatives developed by next-generation fashion innovators. A limited-edition zine extended the narrative, pairing photography with essays and conversations with designers, scientists, and activists reimagining fashion’s future.
Then came the smallest—and perhaps sharpest—gesture.
Stickers bearing the campaign’s question and QR code were distributed for public use, intended to be placed directly on the price tags of luxury polyester garments. A quiet intervention that would lead to our microsite.
Reframing Luxury in Real Time
To extend the conversation beyond posters and into dialogue, we hosted a panel discussion during Climate Week NYC at Another Tomorrow in SoHo. The venue was intentional. Another Tomorrow’s commitment to responsible materials, traceable supply chains, and long-term thinking made it a fitting counterpoint to the campaign’s questions—proof that luxury can be grounded in substance, not just image.
Moderated by journalist Jasmin Malik Chua, the panel brought together Vanessa Barboni Hallik, Alden Wicker, Ross McBee, Christopher Griffin, and myeslf to explore who defines luxury, which materials deserve that status, and whether transparency—rather than greenwashing—can become a true marker of prestige.
If the posters posed the question, the panel sat with it—pulling apart fashion’s contradictions and asking what luxury could look like if materials actually mattered.
Why This Campaign Mattered
Is This a Luxury Item? isn’t about offering easy answers. It’s about asking the questions that shift perception—and reminding us that what we accept as “luxury” is not inevitable, but constructed.
This project marked the debut of No Kill : Project Planet, our nonprofit expansion of No Kill Magazine created to take critical questions beyond the page and into public life. Through campaigns, public interventions, and education, NK:PP challenges how fashion assigns value—and makes the environmental cost of those decisions harder to ignore.
No Kill Magazine remains a publication, because storytelling, critique, and cultural analysis still matter. No Kill : Project Planet exists because some questions demand a public response.
Is This a Luxury Item? marked the first step in an ongoing series of campaigns aimed at redefining value in fashion. Future projects will continue to challenge industry contradictions while spotlighting the innovators building regenerative alternatives.
Because real luxury isn’t synthetic.
It’s intelligent.
It’s circular.
And it’s in harmony with the planet.
PROJECT CREDITS
Creative & Art Direction: KL Dunn and Katya Moorman
Talent: Patrick Duffy, Kristy Drutman, Christopher Griffin, Alden Wicker
Photographers: Nick Pflederer, Karla Tomanelli
MUA: Anthony Tulve, Olga Tertyshna
Hair: Raheem B, Olga Tertyshna
Stylist: Willfree Vasquez
Assistants: Zoe Arianna, Anmol Baliga, Youvani Boyd, Chloe Lewis, Sam Racine
Zine/Posters: Anmol Baliga, Chloe Lewis, Katya Moorman, KL Dunn
Video: Chloe Lewis, Katya Moorman
Indie Designer Spread in ‘zine
JRAT Photo: Blue
Grace Gui Photo: Daria Kobayashi Ritch
Caroline Zimbalist Photo: Nick Plflederer
SPECIAL THANKS
Splashlight Studio (with gratitude to Beatrice Dupire and Patrick Duffy) Caroline Zimbalist & Another Tomorrow
Alexis Bittar
Sajjad Hossain
Logan House
Stricof Family Foundation
