Today, there is a growing selection of clothing and footwear even in high fashion that is in line with the principles of
“Protecting Animals” which is one of the basic principles of veganism. We often make our purchasing decisions unknowingly with the already predetermined view that real leather, real fur and real wool is much better and more beautiful. We want such high valued clothes , no matter how much more expensive, they are, and this is in particular because they are symbols of prestige in the society.
However, these materials derived from animals and we often do not know how they were obtained.
Materials derived from animals
The leather we wear is the skin of animals of cows, pigs, goats, kangaroos, ostriches, cats and dogs.
The more exotic leather is the skin of crocodiles, alligators and snakes.
Wool is the hair of a lambs or sheep.
Angora is rabbit’s wool.
Cashmere is the hair of cashmere goats.
The fur we wear is the animal’s coat which is still attached to the animal’s skin, and it comes from bears, beavers, cats, chinchillas, dogs, foxes, rabbits, raccoons and seals.
When collecting these materials, animals undergo tremendous suffering, abuse, killing, live twitching or plucking of feathers or cooking alive inside their cocoons (silkworms).
These materials are often a by-product of the meat and dairy industries. They often also pollute the environment with toxins used in the tanning or processing proceses.
All these materials are often not marked, so you do not know whose they are and where they came from, so you would not have to bother with thinking about the idea that an animal was tortured and killed because of you and that you are now wearing his skin or covering with its feathers of wearing iys feathers in your jackets, but it was meant to protect him from the cold.
The vegan materials you need to wear
There are more and more manufacturers and sellers that are moving to high-quality materials at affordable prices including non-animal micro-fibres, recycled nylon, polyurethane (PU), royalties, silk fibres, polyester and rayon, and even plant, mushroom, and fruit materials.
They all sell “leather” shoes and sneakers, coats without wool, faux fur clothing.
All companies using the logo must sign PETA’s statement of assurance that their product is vegan.
High fashion designers are teaming up with manufacturers to create innovative, high quality materials.
Look for the vegan logo on clothing, shoes and accessories tags.
Look for vegan fabrics made from twill, hemp, cotton and recycled polyester (rPET). These materials are of good quality, remove water, dry faster and are better for the environment.
