Extinction Rebellion activists are plotting to disrupt this week’s London Fashion Week in protest at the harm the industry causes to the environment.

They are in talks with Safia Minney, founder of sustainable clothing label People Tree, to target Britain’s biggest fashion event. Yesterday Miss Minney criticised ‘fast fashion’ – cheap clothing that is thrown away after being worn only a few times – and backed the protest.

Activists are expected to try to bring traffic to a halt near venues and hold a mock funeral to publicise their claim that the industry is responsible for around 10 per cent of total global emissions.

Green activist group Extinction Rebellion are planning to disrupt London's Fashion Week with human walls and mock funerals

Safia Minney, founder to People Tree is now in talks with the activist group to find non-violent means of action for the planned protest

British entrepreneur Miss Minney, 55, founded People Tree 28 years ago to try to combat social and environmental injustice within the clothing trade.

It is now a successful business operating in 1,000 stores globally and turning over several million pounds annually.

‘Fast fashion – that has democratised fashion by making it cheap – has come at a huge environmental cost,’ she told the Daily Mail. Miss Minney is one of a number of fashion insiders boycotting the buying of new clothes. She encourages everyone to buy second hand instead.

Last month Miss Minney joined forces with Extinction Rebellion and recycling charity Traid to lobby the British Fashion Council to cancel London Fashion Week, which starts on Friday and will attract fashion editors and celebrities from around the world. She has been in talks with activists over non-violent direct action to disrupt guests as they travel between catwalk shows in gas-guzzling limousines.

Extinction Rebellion has promised a repeat of its demonstrations in April that brought chaos to London and led to 1,000 arrests. In June activists held a ‘die-in’ at a branch of Primark in Bristol, lying on the floor to protest at fast fashion.

Caroline Rush, chief executive of the British Fashion Council, has said the fashion week is the best place to ‘encourage the showcase of British businesses engaging in sustainable business practices’.