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Vegan Leather Guide Apple Leather Ananas Leather Cactus Leather AppleSkin Pinatex Desserto

17/04/2024

Vegan Leather Guide 2: Coated Materials

Let's get juicy 👀 Plant-based vegan leather is ON TREND. But what actually is 🍎 Apple Leather, 🌵 Cactus Leather or 🍍 Ananas Leather? How are they produced? Is it actually a sustainable material and a waste product? We shed a light on the most talked about materials on the market!

Vegan Leather Guide 1 Mushroom Leather Reishi Mylo MuSkin

19/01/2024

Vegan Leather Guide 1: Monomers

What exactly is vegan leather? Get to know all about mushroom leather, mycelium and other bio-based monomers » First things first: Talking about animal leather » Mycelium Leather (Reishi, Mylo)» Mushroom leather (Muskin)» Bacterial (nano-)cellulose biomaterials» Other vegan leathers in development » Overview about vegan leather innovations Animal leather is...

Plants Not Plastics – Oihana Elizalde on the Next-Gen Material MIRUM®

13/12/2021

Plants Not Plastics – Oihana Elizalde on the Next-Gen Material MIRUM®

The vegan leather market is in a permanent state of flux. Companies are investing a lot of money to develop next-gen materials that promise to be both: animal-friendly and more sustainable for the environment. We talked with Oihana Elizalde about one of the most promising new vegan leathers: the natural, plastic-free MIRUM®.

What is vegan fashion?

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.

How can you recognize vegan fashion?

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.

Be aware of hidden animal products

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.

Why vegan fashion?

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.

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