As the big clothing season begins, full of shopping for school clothing, special clothes for religious holidays and festivals, buying clothing gifts for holidays like Christmas, or just your everyday clothing...What are you wearing (or buying)?
Veganism isn't just about food. Veganism is also about what we wear (and items we use in any way in our life, like body care, cosmetics, and household cleaning products).
With clothing, it's about wearing apparel and accessories that are created without the use of any animal materials, which includes not wearing clothing made with animal fur (like angora), wool, leather, any animal skin (like snake, sheep, lamb, suede), or silk.
Even if the animals are not killed (to make items like leather or silk), there is still cruelty involved. With down materials, starting at 9 weeks old, baby geese are strung upside down and their feathers are ripped out. This happens every 6 weeks until they are sent to slaughter. With fur, it comes from anal electrocution, by sticking a metal rod in animals' rectums and electrocuting them from the inside, or by catching an animal in a steel-jaw leg-hold trap, which often leads to the animal trying to bite off their own limb to escape before the trapper finds him/her. With wool, weeks after birth, most lambs have their ears punched and tails chopped, and most males are castrated--all without anesthetics. When shearing, it's done with speed and often results in bloody slashing and mutilation.
Vegan fashion is not all expensive. Actually, vegan clothing comes at many different price points, depending on the label that makes it. Whether you're in the market for a $30 vegan bag or a $1,000 vegan coat, you can and will find something on any budget. A small, independent label using cutting-edge fabrics will have higher costs per piece because they aren't spreading out a large production run. Also, vegan fashion isn't difficult to find. It's likely you've already came across vegan fashion items at your favorite stores. Target, Bakers, and Payless all sell vegan shoes for instance. If you seek it out--and even if you don't--you'll find it! From feminine pleated-skirt peacoats to beautiful bronze metallic T-strap pumps, vegan fashion isn't just animal and eco-friendly, it's also stylish, sexy and chic from head to toe!
According to a report from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, animal agriculture (raising animals for production) is the number one cause of global warming. It's the largest contributor of greenhouse gases--more than all transportation combined. By opting for vegan fashions, you're doing your part to make a difference for the world beyond your clothing.
You don't have to throw out all your clothes with animal materials all at once restarting your style from scratch; you can simply make more vegan choices moving forward, like from now on, avoiding anything with fur (even trim). In addition, next time you're out shopping at the department store or mall, look out for vegan bag and shoe options--they're everywhere.
Read labels. The way one would read labels on food containers, always read the labels on clothing and accessories to make sure what you're buying is truly without animal materials. For example, sometimes labels plainly state, "all man-made materials" on the inside of shoes and bags. Many shoes have leather soles and were made overseas, so you also want for words that mean "leather" in other countries. This includes "cuero" (Spanish), "cuoio" (Italian) and "cuir" (French).
Read labels. The way one would read labels on food containers, always read the labels on clothing and accessories to make sure what you're buying is truly without animal materials. For example, sometimes labels plainly state, "all man-made materials" on the inside of shoes and bags. Many shoes have leather soles and were made overseas, so you also want for words that mean "leather" in other countries. This includes "cuero" (Spanish), "cuoio" (Italian) and "cuir" (French).
To keep your budget well-balanced with all of these fashion temptations, invest in good quality vegan clothing items that you know you'll wear often. The goal is to create an edited closet rather than a pile of clothes, so think about the true price of clothing in terms of how often you will wear it.
