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Maebe We Should Talk About Fast Fashion Cosplaying as Luxury

by Libby Pierzak-Pee

It’s a bad time to be a Fiat 500 girlie. After months of hype and speculation, former Love Island contestant and PrettyLittleThing (PLT) Creative Director, Molly-Mae Hague, has finally launched her much anticipated fashion brand Maebe. 


Her debut collection officially went on sale September 29th - and sold out in twenty four minutes. 



The drop included blazers, jeans, cardigans and tops. Despite the brand being a month old and with another restock underway, Maebe has already faced a barrage of controversy.


From misleading consumers, vague fabric composition descriptions, questionable pricing, and a lack of originality, many have been left deeply unimpressed. Did we really expect anything less from the woman who claimed we all have the same 24 hours in a day?


Let’s assess the chaos!


According to the brand’s website Maebe “is a non seasonal brand crafted to elevate your everyday wardrobe. With a focus on high-quality pieces designed for daily wear, the brand draws inspiration from traditional British heritage, reimagining timeless classics that exude quality.” 


The brand also claims to bridge the gap between fast fashion and luxury without an unattainable price point.


When pictures of the collection first emerged, I was sadly not surprised by the collection’s lack of originality. Despite Hague claiming she has spent over three years working on this line, the collection is made up entirely of current ‘clean girl’ fashion trends.


First things first; the materials. 


Initially, their website provided no information on the fabrics being used. This is a legal requirement in the UK, with regulations stating brands must include details on the main fibre types used and their percentages. Maebe misled consumers by not making details of the fabric composition of the clothes available before the launch. Instead, descriptions for each item were kept incredibly vague.


Fan culture is so crazy those who bought the first round didn’t actually know what they were spending their money on. Fabric compositions were only later added to the Maebe website after everything had already sold out.


Do you want to keep warm this winter? Then I don’t recommend buying the Cosy Cropped Cardigan. 


At £65 the cardigan, available in both grey and cream is ridiculously overpriced considering it is 95% plastic. To be specific, it is made of 41% acrylic, 30% polyester, 24% polyamide, and 5% wool. Yes, only 5% wool, despite being initially labelled as having “a touch of wool” in its brief description. 


If the cardigan isn’t for you, what about an off-white top instead? Described simply as being “buttery soft”, the ‘Contour Popper Top’ is £50 and made of 86% polyester and 14% spandex. Or as in other words, is an 100% plastic top. 


While I understand we’re in a cost of living crisis, if you want your tops to be buttery soft, perhaps it would be more affordable to grab some Lurpak?


Maybe I can tempt you into purchasing THE ULTIMATE BLAZER? Priced at £140, you too

can invest in an eco disaster of 63% polyester, 19% viscose, and 18% acrylic. Again, this is also known as an 100% plastic blazer.


Whilst there are some pieces that are majority cotton such as the Dreamer Pointelle T-Shirt (£35), other brands in a very similar price range to Maebe offer better material options for their clothes.


For example, M&S offers a wool rich cropped cashmere cardigan in dark grey for £95 with a fabric composition of 90% wool and 10% cashmere. M&S are also selling a single breasted blazer in black for £119 with a fabric composition of 44% polyester, 40% wool, 10% silk, and 6% elastane.


Maebe’s prices range from £35 to £140, and many social media users have expressed their anger regarding the “shockingly expensive” cost of the clothes in the collection. Going from PLT’s £1 products made this quite a jump, especially considering the equally poor materials they are made from. 


One customer, @morgannandnoah, expressed her disappointment on TikTok revealing that her Maebe blazer was already ruined after wearing it for just three hours. She showed her followers how the blazer had started bobbling on both sides and some of the fabric had become unattached. 


Morgan said, “I was really excited to see what else she came out with. But £140 for that I just think is criminal. I did not think that she was gonna put something out that was bad quality and wouldn’t be durable at that price point, but it

is.”


Following Maebe’s launch a number of people have been openly critical of the brand, including model, sustainability fashion advocate, and fellow ex Love Islander Brett Staniland.


Since appearing on the ITV dating show, 2 seasons after Hague, Staniland has gone on to take a consistently vocal stand against fast fashion and has even previously protested at Molly-Mae’s PrettyLittleThing fashion show back in 2022. 


In a recent TikTok discussing Maebe, Staniland argued, “it seems like they’re just making fast fashion and changing the price tag.”


Staniland also discussed Maebe’s pricing and whether customers are really getting value for

money. “This particular price point can actually be a really good area for value for money IF you are buying ethically made, quality clothing of natural fibres that are going to last a long time,” he added. 


Accusations of Maebe being a fast fashion brand have not been helped by the drop-based model used for the launch. 


A drop is usually a highly anticipated sale of a very limited quantity of merchandise or an exclusive product. Drops create a sense of urgency amongst consumers, providing them with an illusion of scarcity despite products not necessarily being expensive or difficult to manufacture. They force people to overconsume at incessant rates as people panic over missing out.


The rise of fast fashion is deeply intertwined with social media influencer culture and overconsumption. In an age where people base their sense of self-worth on the number of likes they get on social media, there is an expectation to post new and exciting content 24/7 by constantly wearing and buying something new. 


Weekly clothing hauls and keep or return videos are not normal, and shouldn’t be encouraged to be normal. This greatly contrasts the luxury market that traditionally values a commitment to excellence, products made from high quality raw materials, superb craftsmanship, rich heritage, and lenghty time taken to design, produce, and consume a product.


The effects of overconsumption have lasting environmental impacts. In the UK we buy more clothes per person than any other country in Europe. It’s estimated that the average item of clothing is worn just 14 times before we get rid of it. 


In 2019, The Guardian found that one in three young women considered an item worn once or twice to be “old.” The constant changing trends means that manufacturers are under pressure to produce clothes much more rapidly with shorter notice.


From this first collection it’s clear that Hague’s current aesthetic reigns supreme; trendy pieces that will go out of style within a few months. When her style inevitably changes, new clothes will be launched to accommodate that.


Sadly, Maebe is a missed opportunity. The collection may have sold out in under half an hour, but it is disingenuous to believe that better brands offering higher quality, durable, and recyclable items aren’t already available. With all of the resources available to the millionaire mogul, Maebe had the potential to be a sustainable fashion brand that created timeless clothing for all women.


People are throwing money at a name, not investing in good quality well-made items of clothing. It is not fashion, it is fandom.


Whilst I am certain that Molly-Mae could sell out anything she put her name to due to her social media power, it is doubtful whether many of the people who managed to purchase items from the collection will be returning customers.


Maebe does not have the potential to become a household name within the British fashion industry, just as Kylie Jenner’s Khy has missed the mark in America. Next time you go shopping, make sure quality and wearability is at the heart of everything you purchase. 


Edited by Emily Duff

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