Posted by Emma Leiber on
This year, Melina Bucher receives Europe's biggest award for ecological and social commitment with the vegan designer bag BAILEY. The 'the handbag of the future' is designed for the circular economy.
Exclusive Insights. New Collections. First to Sales.
To understand vegan fashion, we must first understand Veganism. Veganism is not just plant-based eating. Veganism is a lifestyle to which welfare and happiness of animals is paramount. Among other things, it is about protecting animals from pain, suffering and undignified living conditions, which are unfortunately still quite common in the food but also fashion industry and production. Besides food, clothing and beauty products are the biggest contributors to animal suffering. Vegan fashion is a way to make and buy clothes and accessories that exclude the exploitation of animals. Vegan clothing is free of materials derived from animals such as fur, leather and wool. They also refuse buttons, glue and other details that come from animal sources.
Unfortunately, there is currently no regulation for vegan fashion labeling. You can tell whether a product includes animal derived textile materials like wool, fur or leather by looking at the product label. Other animal-derived ingriedients like colour dyes, coatings or glues are not declarable. Often, you need to do your own research and contact the customer service. Our you buy from labels which are vegan certified (Peta-approved vegan, ProVeg vegan) to ensure that your fashion item is vegan and animal friendly. Here are also some tips that help to quickly find out whether animal substances are hidden in the supposedly vegan fashion: In shoes made of imitation leather, the insole is often made of leather. However, manufacturers are required to label this. Patches and applications on pants, dresses and shirts are often also made of leather. Here, only the label or personnel provide information. Buttons on shirts are often made of mother-of-pearl or horn. Imitations are difficult to distinguish from them. Here, too, you have to ask. Glued products not too rarely hold together with animal glue. But the staff should know about it.
The term vegan food is more and more common in our society, but what about vegan fashion? In other words, clothing that is completely free of animal materials and ingredients. In the store, it is often not apparent at first glance whether the garment is really vegan. So which clothing components are not vegan? First of all, logically, leather, wool (for example, angora, alpaca, camel hair, cashmere or mohair) and fur, but also silk, felt, down/feathers, horn or mother-of-pearl. In many other garments, however, it is not at all obvious that they contain animal components. This is because, in addition to leather and other animal textile materials, adhesives and dyes from animal origin are used in conventional fashion manufacturing. These ingredients are not even visible and there is no regulation in place that fashion brands need to declare them. In addition, there are buttons made from animal horns or jacket impregnations made from beeswax in non vegan fashion pieces. It is therefore very difficult to recognize completely vegan fashion during normal shopping.
There are many reasons to choose vegan fashion. The most common is because you don't want to exploit animals, especially when you have alternatives that are just as good or even better than their non-vegan counterparts. Someone might decide to buy vegan fashion because animal agriculture has a huge impact on the environment, and reducing the amount of animal products you buy is the biggest and easiest thing you can do for the planet. Animals are conscious living beings that are not there for us. They are NOT machines! We have no right to kill them and/or inflict suffering on them for leather, fur, wool, silk, etc. Ask yourself if you think it is okay to kill someone for a pair of shoes, or to restrict someone in a small and crowded place for life to produce sweaters for you. 99% of people are animal lovers, you probably are one too. And you probably wouldn't support this cruelty with your money if you had seen it with your own eyes.
