Eliminate Animal Products

Killer Vegan Fashion

By: Sabrina Floccuzio

After reading through Stella McCartney’s Sustainability Commitments, I decided to focus on “Eliminate Animal Products”. Did you know that more than a billion animals are killed each year for fur and leather? In the video we watched in class on Monday, Seven Issues Facing Fashion Now, Stella mentioned in her interview that even when she was younger, she stayed true to her beliefs and never wore fur or leather. Even her shoes were always made of fabric. Stella can never fully understand the amount of cruelty that continues to happen towards animals, simply to make a garment for someone. “Producing a fur or animal skin jacket consumes twenty times the amount of energy needed to produce a coat made from natural fibers or synthetic materials” (Amed, 2015). Within her commitment, there are three bullets in which she stays loyal to while developing her merchandise. The first bullet states, “don’t use leather, fur, skins or feathers in any products, and no adhesives that are animal-based.” The second bullet states, “use only cruelty free wool and require that every wool supplier provides certified and signed documentation stating that they practice animal friendly farming practices”. Lastly, the third bullet states, “don’t ever test products - including Stella McCartney fragrances - on animals”. Overall, eliminating animal products is important for fashion responsibility because raising animals for clothing and accessories is not only cruel to the animals, but also harmful to the environment. Fur factory farms can house thousands of animals, with 85% of the fur industry’s skins coming from the animals there (PETA, 2018). Raising animals for their fur also pollutes the air. In Denmark, more than 14 million minks are killed each year for their fur, and more than 8,000 pounds of ammonia is released into the atmosphere annually (PETA, 2018). Obviously, leather is a great material, but companies can follow Stella’s approach by sourcing and developing their own materials so they don’t have to use PVC (Amed, 2015). In a fairly recent article on VegNews, it talks about how Stella McCartney uses vegan, yeast-based silk. Many brands tend to be stubborn and stuck in their own ways, but Stella reassures us that fashion companies making even the slightest bit of change in the right direction can make a beneficial impact to our society. There are alternatives to using animal products and several fashion designers use fabrics that are completely eco-friendly. Changing natural fur to a faux fur is one great solution. Similar to what designer Mats Rombaut used in his vegan footwear line, other designers can also use a variety of natural fibers such as tree bark, stones and coconuts. In addition, fashion designer, Joshua Katcher, used many great ideas when creating his vegan menswear label, such as using Brazilian future-wool tweeds and twills made from recycled cotton and recycled polyester, soft Turkish future-silk made from recycled water bottles and high-tech PU based microfiber "future leather" (Dobson, 2016). Innovation is a greater driver of change and Stella advises other fashion brands, that surely, creating sustainable merchandise is not an easy task, however, it is extremely rewarding and satisfying in the end!