Leather
What is this?
Leather is the skin of animals such as cows, pigs, goats, kangaroos, ostriches, cats and dogs. Often leather items are not labeled accurately, so you won’t know exactly where they come from or who they are made from. Snakes, alligators, crocodiles and other reptiles are considered “exotic” in the fashion industry – they are killed and their skins turned into bags, shoes and other things.
What is wrong with it?
Most leather comes from cows slaughtered for beef and milk, and is a by-product of the meat and dairy industries. Leather is the worst material for the environment. By buying leather goods, you share the responsibility for the environmental destruction caused by the meat industry and pollute the earth with the toxins used in the tanning process. Whether it’s cows, cats or snakes, animals don’t have to die so that people can wear their skin.
What to use instead?
Most of the big brands now offer faux leather, ranging from store-bought ones like Top Shop and Zara to upscale designers like Stella McCartney and bebe. Look for the vegan leather label on clothing, shoes, and accessories. High-quality artificial leather is made from many different materials, including microfiber, recycled nylon, polyurethane (PU), and even plants, including mushrooms and fruits. Lab-grown bio-leather will soon fill store shelves.
Wool, cashmere and angora wool
What is this?
Wool is the wool of a lamb or a sheep. Angora is the wool of the angora rabbit, and cashmere is the wool of the cashmere goat.
What is wrong with it?
Sheep grow enough wool to protect themselves from temperature extremes, and they don’t need shearing. Sheep in the wool industry have their ears pierced and their tails chopped off, and the males castrated—all without anesthesia. Wool also harms the environment by polluting water and contributing to climate change. Goats and rabbits are also abused and killed for angora wool and cashmere.
What to use instead?
These days, non-wool sweaters can be found on the shelves of many stores. Brands such as H&M, Nasty Gal and Zara offer wool coats and other clothing made from vegan materials. Designers Joshua Kutcher of Brave GentleMan and Leanne Mai-Ly Hilgart of VAUTE team up with manufacturers to create innovative vegan materials. Look for vegan fabrics made from twill, cotton, and recycled polyester (rPET)—these materials are waterproof, dry faster, and are more environmentally friendly than wool.
Fur
What is this?
Fur is the hair of an animal still attached to its skin. For the sake of fur, bears, beavers, cats, chinchillas, dogs, foxes, minks, rabbits, raccoons, seals and other animals are killed.
What is wrong with it?
Each fur coat is the result of the suffering and death of a particular animal. It doesn’t matter if they killed him on a farm or in the wild. Animals on fur farms spend their entire lives in cramped, dirty wire cages before being strangled, poisoned, electrocuted or gassed. Whether they are chinchillas, dogs, foxes, or raccoons, these animals are capable of feeling pain, fear, and loneliness, and they don’t deserve to be tortured and killed for their fur-trimmed jacket.
What to use instead?
GAP, H&M, and Inditex (owner of the Zara brand) are the biggest brands to go completely fur-free. Gucci and Michael Kors have also recently gone fur-free, and Norway has issued a complete ban on fur farming, following the example of other countries. This archaic and brutally mined material is starting to become a thing of the past.
Silk and down
What is this?
Silk is a fiber that is woven by silkworms to make their cocoons. Silk is used to make shirts and dresses. Down is the soft layer of feathers on a bird’s skin. Down jackets and pillows are stuffed with down of geese and ducks. Other feathers are also used to decorate clothing and accessories.
What is wrong with it?
To make silk, makers boil the worms alive inside their cocoons. Clearly, worms are sensitive—they produce endorphins and have a physical response to pain. In the fashion industry, silk is considered the second worst material in terms of the environment, after leather. Down is often obtained by the painful plucking of live birds, and also as a by-product of the meat industry. Regardless of how silk or feathers were obtained, they belong to the animals that made them.
What to use instead?
Brands such as Express, Gap Inc., Nasty Gal, and Urban Outfitters use non-animal derived materials. Nylon, milkweed fibers, cottonwood, Ceiba tree fibers, polyester and rayon are not associated with animal abuse, are easy to find and are generally cheaper than silk. If you need a down jacket, choose a product made from bio-down or other modern materials.
Look for the “PETA-Approved Vegan” logo on clothing
Similar to PETA’s Cruelty-Free Bunny logo, the PETA-Approved Vegan label allows clothing and accessory companies to identify their products. All companies using this logo sign documents stating that their product is vegan.
If the clothes do not have this logo, then just pay attention to the fabrics.