How veganism is taking the step from kitchen to closet
Remember when synthetic leather was the fall-back option, if you couldn't afford the real thing?It has just become a selling point: clothes and accessories marketed as free from cow skin and any other animal products, are being launched by retailers up and down the High Street, including Marks & Spencer, Zara and New Look.
"It seems to be a bit of a buzz word," says Patsy Perry, senior lecturer in fashion marketing at the University of Manchester.Designer Stella McCartney is seen as a pioneer of animal-friendly fashion At the top end, designers like Stella McCartney - described by Ms Perry as the original pioneer in this area - have shunned leather and fur for some time. Her fashion house is now exploring a leather substitute made from fungi, and looking at replacing silk with yeast proteins.
Launched right back in 2011, the vegan DMs are made from a combination of polyester fabric and polyurethane. After last year's rapid growth, vegan boots represented 4% of all pairs sold. This marks a change, points out retail analyst Kate Hardcastle. In the past ethical products, whether that was fair trade or organic came at a premium.
The debate over durability, production techniques, crop-growing impacts, pollution, biodegradability and recyclability is a complicated one, not to mention the ethics around the working conditions for people making the products, whatever the component materials.
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