For some years now, the fashion industry has been in the crosshairs of the climate change movement. The charges against it are wide-ranging and grave; everything from its use of animal skins to its carbon emissions, to its habit of burning excess stock, to a culture of excessive flying and waste have been cited by activists and insiders alike.

The statistics certainly back it up: it’s estimated that garment manufacturing accounts for between 5 and 10 percent of manmade CO2 emissions, that 85 percent of all textiles end up destroyed or buried in landfills, and that fashion produces about 20 percent of global wastewater. Such facts are undeniable, embarrassing, a dark stain on the very nature of the business.

This week saw an arresting protest aimed right at the heart of the industry: London Fashion Week. Demonstrators from the environmental group Extinction Rebellion carried out what they called a ‘die-in’, and a ‘funeral for fashion’, right outside the main hub of the events.

They glued themselves to doors and covered themselves in blood, they laid down on the street, they held signs with slogans like ‘dump leather’. By the looks of it, many did their best to ignore them.

Initially, ER’s plans were even more disruptive; they had petitioned to shut down fashion week altogether (and not in the way Skepta did) and hold a people’s assembly on climate change instead.

Their public statements on the issue are similarly radical; their ‘boycott fashion’ campaign urges the public not to buy any new clothes for an entire year, instead of using the existing surplus of garments and textiles on the planet. An idea that probably won’t fly too well with the bigwigs on the second row, trying to convince people to shell out for capsule collections and diffusion ranges.

Extinction Rebellion’s aims are certain, but their targets seem less so. Does protesting at London Fashion Week – which is predominantly a showcase for designers that (Topshop and Burberry aside) make small batches of highly exclusive clothing – really make sense when Primark is just down the road?