Vegan Fashion (be proud to wear your values!)
Vegan clothing is basically anything that doesn’t involve making profit from an animal. There are always grey areas, so it’s usually easier to just avoid it all.
For any items containing recycled polyester or elastane, launder in a microfibre filter (or just buy 100% natural fabrics, far simpler!)
Donate unwanted clothing to small charity shops (not big ones that test on animals). You can take damaged or stained clothing to textile banks. They will then be shredded to make insulation and other goods.
Organic cotton is much better for the planet, as it does not release chemicals into the land or water, which is better for wildlife. Also it stops production of conventional cotton, which uses a huge amount of chemicals, which can also make farmers ill, especially working without protective clothing in hot countries.
Some farmers who buy chemicals commit suicide, as they can’t afford to keep buying them, but their land has turned to ‘junk food cravings’, without organic farming methods. They don’t farm this way by choice, it’s because of the market. So help them along by supporting fairly-paid organic farmers.
- No fur. This is obvious. The fur industry has horrific welfare records.
- No leather. Not a by-product of the meat industry, most is produced in the Far East, with little or no animal welfare laws. The tanning process is also polluting, and has cancer risks for workers.
- No sheepskin or shearling. Sheepskin the skin of a sheep. Shearling is the skin of a lamb. Shahtoosh (banned) is from a Tibetan antelope. Pashmina is from a Tibetan mountain goat.
- No silk. Conventional silk involves boiling silkworms. Even ‘peace or ahimsa’ silk can result in them starving on release.
- No feathers or down. Vegans don’t buy jewellery or bedding with feathers (usually from factory-farmed ducks or geese). Real ‘eider downs’ are from fallen feathers (collected in Iceland) but nowhere near enough for the bedlinen industry.
- No Animal jewellery (anything from bones to feathers to pearls).
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, and can’t get back upright, and soon die if the farmer is not aware. Some sheep can also fall over, due to wool being waterlogged from rain.
If you see a sheep on its back, just firmly right it back, then stay with it, until rain has drained off. Then inform your local farmer.
Super Silkworms (issues with silk and ‘peace silk’)
How much do you know about silk? We all know that it’s a luxury material used for dresses (especially wedding dresses). But did you know that it’s made by boiling silkworms? And even ‘peace or ahimsa’ silk has been found to harm, as the silkworms (though allowed to chew their way out of cocoons), often end up on the floor where they starve, too tired to find food.
The truth is that right now, there are few suitable alternatives, so it’s best to just use organic cotton:
- Cupro is made from cotton waste (and looks and feels like silk) but it’s mixed with synthetic fabrics.
- Tencel is from flammable eucalyptus trees (and new plantations have been banned in Spain and Portugal, due to concern over monocultures causing wildfires).
Good Reasons to Protect Silkworms
Silkworms are not actually worms, they are the larvae of the silk moth. Living on mulberry leaves, they spin silk from their saliva which hardens into liquid protein, when it comes into contact with air).
They can’t fly. Those used for industry have been genetically altered to not be able to survive in the wild, without human care. Wild silkworms can survive in forests, feeding on trees.
Silk production kills around 420 billion to over 1 trillion silkworms each year, either boiled or gassed alive in their cocoons, to prevent breaking the silk element. It takes around 5,500 silkworms to produce just 1 kg of silk.
There are also human welfare laws, most silk is made in the far east, where staff receive poor pay and little protection from pesticide use (used to grow mulberry trees). Billions of silkworms also die due to pesticides, before the harvest. Male moths are often kept frozen (in order to mate multiple times), while female moths are sometimes crushed for disease testing, after laying eggs.
So-called ‘peace silk’ is not much better. Although the pupa is not boiled, many moths die shortly after emerging, due to being so domesticated they can’t fly (nor have mouths to eat, so live only a few days to mate, before dying).
Investigations by Beauty Without Cruelty in India, found that many ‘ahimsa silk moths’ were crushed after laying eggs, and males were refrigerated and reused, until they die or are discarded. And surplus larvae also starve to death.
Vegan Happy Clothing (wear your values!)
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!
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.
