Chanel has launched in Singapre a S$7,550 water bottle carrier, which comes with a gold-coloured water bottle.

Water bottles are now fashionable?

According to rather poor justifications by Vogue Australia, the water bottle has been "reinvented" as fashion turns to embrace sustainability.

The gold-coloured water bottle, which was featured in their cruise 2019/2020 collection, comes with its own bottle bag, made from lambskin leather.

The suggested retail price is S$7,550, according to the website.

The water bottle has been seen on the Instagram accounts of various celebrities, such as Maggie Rogers, who brought the accessory to the Grammys at the start of this year.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B74DZoPFSsb/

Chanel is not the only fashion brand that has been selling over-priced water bottles, according to Vogue Australia.

The magazine reported that other fashion brands have been embracing sustainability in the past year -- as an accessory.

Some other examples include Nalgene's collaboration with Supreme, which costs S$145, and Prada with its metal water bottle, which costs over S$100.

According to Vogue Australia, the water bottle has been "transformed from utilitarian device to coveted accessory and status symbol".

Is it really that sustainable?

While having a reusable water bottle is great at reducing the amount of single-use plastic from bottled water, constantly changing reusable water bottles might defeat the purpose of trying to be eco-friendly.

As for the leather bottle bag, there are a lot of social and environmental issues with the way leather from animal skin is treated.

Before leather can be made into bags and shoes, raw animal skin is treated with chemicals, such as chromium and other hazardous materials.

This process is often done in countries, such as China, India and Bangladesh, where environmental and safety standards are much lower than in developed nations where the leather is exported to.

The wastewater from tanneries, where skins get processed, is often discharged into rivers nearby.

For workers at these tanneries or communities around them, chromium irritates the eyes, skin and lungs and also causes cancer.

https://vimeo.com/88261827

So even if one had S$7,550, maybe the over-priced water bottle and its bag isn't that worth it, especially when we don't know where the leather comes from and who it harms.

Top photos via Chanel's website