Organic Vegan Message Clothing (wear your values!)
For items with elastane or recycled polyester, launder in a microfibre filter (or buy 100% natural fabrics, far simpler!)
Donate unwanted clothing to small charity shops (not big ones that test on animals). Recycle damaged/stained clothing at textile banks (it’s shredded into insulation and other goods).
Vegan Happy Clothing (helps barnyard friends!)
Vegan Happy Clothing is a wonderful fashion brand, founded by a woman who rescues barnyard animals and sells casual clothing items with vegan messages, with profits helping to fund animal welfare. These tees are a mix of organic cotton and organic cutting waste.
Check out the 100% organic men’s cotton shirts (above) and organic hoodies.
As a vegan clothing company, everything is free from wool, silk, leather or fur. The brand uses water-saving natural dyes, and there are petite and plus-size ranges. All reviews are 5-stars, and you get freepost return labels.
Charities supported including those that help pets and barnyard friends, Spanish greyhounds, horses, rabbits and many other creatures, along with a charity that helps dogs that live with homeless people.
Meet the ‘face of Vegan Happy Clothing!’
Soprano singer Annette Wardell (described as the ‘Kylie of Opera’ by Manchester Evening News) is the face of Vegan Happy Clothing. Born in Yorkshire to British/Cypriot parents, she studied at Royal College of Music and performed with Alfie Boe (to over 280 million viewers, when she sang at an FA Cup Final).
Described by the Daily Telegraph as having ‘one of the most beautiful voices of her generation’, how marvellous that such a glamorous talent is using her own brand to help this one!
What is vegan clothing?
Organic cotton, hemp and linen are the best natural fabric choices. They are good for the earth and wildlife, and also for us as they last longer (as fibres are not damaged by chemicals). However, vegan clothing also avoids:
- Fur (horrific cruelty, production is banned in the UK)
- Leather (often produced in countries with few animal welfare laws, and the tanning process is also cancerous – it’s not usually a by-product of the meat industry)
- Sheepskin & shearling (the latter is from the skins of lambs)
- Shahtoosh (banned) is from a Tibetan antelope. Pashmina is from a Tibetan mountain goat.
- Silk (usually boils silkworms, even ‘peace silk’ has issues)
- Feathers or down (choose vegan bedding – most ‘eider down’ is from factory-farmed ducks or real eider down is only collected from fallen feathers in Iceland in tiny numbers)
- Animal-based jewellery (no bones, feathers, pearls, oysters, leather)
Read Vegan Style to learn about alternatives to conventional fabrics, and how to create a sustainable capsule wardrobe. It recommends watching the film Slay, from a former fur-wearing fashionista who now campaigns for animal welfare.
Curious Why Vegans Don’t Wear Wool?
Although most sheep need shearing to avoid over-heating (and be able to see predators), the conventional wool industry has many issues.
Some sheep are sheared too early (leading to hypothermia) and others suffer ‘mulesling’ (having chunks of skin sliced away to prevent flystrike, without painkillers). And many sheep are killed, when they get older and their wool production slows down). You can even now buy vegan winter woollies (thick organic cotton jumpers, as warm as wool).
If you wear wool, choose companies that don’t kill the sheep, simply shearing the wool: like vegetarian wool or sheepskins.
Pregnant sheep can sometimes roll over onto their backs due to pregnancy or rain-soaked wool, and will die if not turned back upright. If you see one, just grab a handful of wool and firmly right it back, then stay with it, until rain has drained off.
Vegan as Folk (fun organic cotton message clothing)
Vegan as Folk is a fun affordable online store, with organic cotton casual clothing and hats for men, women and children. Family run, and all items sent in sustainable packaging. This sweatshirt is 100% organic cotton.
Nobody’s keen on a ‘preachy vegan’, but fun message tees get the animal-friendly word out, at the same time as helping the planet by offering organic or recycled cotton clothing. To replace items that you would otherwise buy on the high street.
Some vegan clothing companies with graphic images and skulls etc, don’t exactly give the right impression or inspire others. But this company is fun, and uses peaceful positive and colourful messages.
Someone once asked vegan cookbook author Isa Chandra Moskowitz the best way to convince people to try a plant-based lifestyle. She said the answer was on the end of your fork. There is no need to scare people or upset people, to get a positive message across.
Plant-Faced Clothing (ethical streetwear)
Plant-Faced Clothing offers thoughtfully designed organic cotton t-shirts, all made with quality fabrics, and sent in zero-waste packaging. There is an easy ‘organic icon’ to choose only natural materials.
And each tee has a unique message to promote the plant-based lifestyle. And unlike most streetwear, this is all ethically made, by workers in safe conditions being paid a proper wage.
