Vegan Clothing
Kinder Gentler Fashion

What materials are used in vegan clothing?

Instead of telling you what materials it includes maybe it's easier to say what it doesn't. It doesn't include any clothing materials like wool, silk, leather or fur, anything created from a living creature. That leaves everything else.

Unfortunately animal furs and skins are very popular with fashion designers. Not enough fashion designers seem to give much thought to where the materials they use come from.

But slowly things are changing.

The Humane Society of the United States [HSUS] recently partnered with fashion designer Jay McCarroll, the winner of the TV reality show Project Runway, to promote their Fur Free Campaign during the debut of his fall line at New York Fashion Week. And he is not the first.

Designers Stella McCartney and Benjamin Cho along with other designers, models, retailers and celebrities like Alicia Silverstone, Drew Barrymore and Pamela Anderson also support the Fur Free campaign [an estimated 40 million animals could be saved from becoming part of some one's wardrobe].

Ralph Lauren also signed the PETA campaign and beginning with his holiday collection will no longer be selling any fur products.

While these designers won't necessarily be calling their fashions vegan clothing, these are some very positive changes.

I am hoping we are beginning to see a gradual shift to creating and purchasing clothing that is not only beautiful but is created with concern for animals, people and the earth.

Get the look without the harm.

There are more options than ever that provide alternatives to leather, wool, silk and fur. While they are cruelty free fabrics, they are not without their problems. These man made options are made from plastic, no friend to the environment. Green plastics are in the works but we are a way off from that.

For now, pleather is a great alternative to leather. It's no longer a cheap plastic like fabric. It is considered by some as a daring, cutting edge material being used in it's classiest forms by Gucci, Prada and FUBU. But because it is less expensive than leather can be found in items that fit any budget.

Versatile, flexible, easy to care for and in many ways superior to leather, it can be made into vegan clothing, shoes and accessories that can mimic the look of leather or any animal skin such as crocodile, snake or ostrich.

According to the Humane Society of the United States the fur industry is going to great lengths to disguise real fur to look like fake. Some of the cheap looking fur trims on some of our clothing may actually be rabbit, fox or even cat or dog. A loophole in product labeling could allow all materials to be listed except fur.

Check out the HSUS for more information about this.

On a recent trip to the store, I was looking at a sweater with a pink fur like collar. I assumed it was fake fur just by the looks of it and because it was an inexpensive item but I thought I'd check. Boy was I wrong, I was surprised when I found out that it was rabbit fur.

That was a lesson for me, never assume that because it is cheap it's
fake fur.

Silk is created in a process in the cocoons of the silk worm are boiled with the silk worm moths still in them. A few moths are allowed to emerge to maintain the silk worm population.

It was thought the silkworm was needed to keep the silk fibers intact so it can be reeled in one continuous thread. This is an old process that has been going on unquestioned for many years. But there is an alternative, Peace Silk.

This process lets the silkworm live out it's full cycle and emerge. With Peace Silk they have found that the fiber can still be spun like other fibers even without the silkworm. It creates a soft, fluffy, lightweight material that has been found to provide excellent warmth and is good for therapeutic use.

There is also a form of wild crafted organic silk called Tussah which is also considered vegan. Clothing made from Peace Silk can be hard to find but fabric and yarn for making your own clothing or wedding apparel is more accessible. For more information about Tussah, Peace Silk and other organic fabrics and yarns, check out Aurora Silk

What's the problem with wool?

After all, it's sheared off the sheep and they're not killed for it. It's not as simple as that and while the sheep don't die they can be treated very cruelly. Read for yourself and decide at the Peta website or do a search for vegan wool.

Wool fleece can be replaced with a new technology fabric, Polar Fleece created from recycled plastic bottles destined for landfills. It is a extremely durable, odor and water resistant, breathable, warm and flame resistant fabric. And there are some cottons and cotton blends that are comparable to wool.

Sometimes going for an animal friendly product only leaves us with a synthetic fiber alternative and the creation of many of these fibers can contribute to environmental harm or involve sweatshop labor. There are no easy answers.

Maybe the best answer is in the many beautiful fashions being created from natural, organic fabrics that aren't made from sweatshop labor.

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