Let's talk Vegan Fashion
With the rising popularity of plant-based menu options and restaurants, it’s easy to immediately associate veganism with the culinary world. However, there’s more to it than salad, avocados and… food in general! Veganism is actually a cruelty-free lifestyle that revolves around the abstinence from animal by-products across all aspects of life, including fashion. Let us tell you more about vegan fashion so that we can clarify some common doubts together.
So, what is vegan fashion?
Vegan fashion involves clothing, shoes and accessories that do not contain any ABPs—animal by-products—and were made from cruelty-free sources. It has been gaining more and more popularity in the last few years, with celebrities like Miley Cyrus and Benedict Cumberbatch showcasing glamorous vegan outfits on the red carpet, fashion brands adding vegan collections to their existing range and 100% vegan labels popping up across the world.
If you want to be able to shop with some extra peace of mind without having to question whether those products are actually cruelty-free, you can look for this “Peta-Approved Vegan” logo on labels and websites. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals organization only grants this certification to businesses that do not use any ABPs in their production of clothing, shoes and accessories, relying on all-vegan materials.
Materials avoided by vegan fashion
Some ABPs are obvious and easy to spot: you probably wouldn’t be too surprised to find out that your vegan friend doesn’t wear any leather! Some others, however, can be more obscure.
Other than cattle hide and skin like leather, vegan fashion avoids wool, which is usually shorn off sheep, but also goats (mohair, cashmere) and rabbits (angora); fur, taken from animals like foxes, minks, rabbits, chinchillas, hamsters or lynxes; down, the soft feathers on the chest of ducks and geese, and silk, produced by moth caterpillars.
Vegan alternatives to ABPs
In order to avoid animal by-products, the vegan fashion industry relies on other natural or man-made fibers, sometimes mimicking a specific non-vegan fabric and some other times striving for a completely different, unique result.
Some vegan materials sourced from natural fibers are cotton, linen, hemp, ramie (nettle), silk-cotton (Kapok fiber), milkweed (seed pod fiber), Lyocell, cupro, Tencel, modal and rayon (cellulose). As for man-made materials, you’ll often find synthetic leather, orlon, acrylic, polyester and nylon.
Another creative cruelty-free option that also helps reduce waste is to recycle or upcycle unwanted fabrics and deadstock.
How to build a vegan and sustainable wardrobe
At Noumenon we believe that the most conscious choice is to #ChangeTheGame by combining cruelty-free vegan fashion and a sustainable approach towards the fabrics and alternative materials used.
That’s why we source our fabrics from GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) certified suppliers whose production methods have met their eco-friendly requirements. We therefore rely on sustainable materials derived from natural fibers such as Tencel, linen and cupro. We also choose organic cotton, ethically produced by suppliers that are part of the Better Cotton Initiative.
We enjoy unleashing our creativity by giving a second chance to unwanted materials, too: for example, we’ve managed to upcycle surplus furniture fabric to create striking one-of-a-kind jackets for our From Couch to Coat collection.
We believe that, by choosing cruelty-free clothing items made with sustainable or recycled materials, you can truly make the difference both to animals and our planet. It’s not a coincidence that our motto is “Change the world, and look amazing while you do it.”
Have you got any other questions regarding vegan fashion and this cruelty-free approach to clothing and accessories? Drop us a comment and we'll be happy to clarify your doubts!
0 comments