Primark, which has faced repeated criticism for its “fast fashion” approach, said it hoped its new Durability Framework would help people get more wear from their purchases.
Speaking exclusively to BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours programme, Vicki Swain, Primark’s product longevity lead, said: “We developed the framework to ensure that customers know items are going to last, no matter how much they can afford to spend.
“We’ve been investing in making our clothes more durable and also making them with more sustainable materials.”
Primark supplied the garments for the study but had no further input in the independent research.
Ms Morris said: “We did all of the testing, analysed all of the data, created a testing framework and fed that data back to Primark.
“They were not involved in any of the testing work.”
She added that the University of Leeds planned to conduct more of its own studies to determine what factors cause clothes to last.
“We’re doing a lot more research to find out what dictates durability within a garment, but that’s not something we’ve found out yet.”
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