What material pops up in your mind when it comes to animal-derived materials? Leather, feathers, fur, or silk? What does vegan fashion mean? The simple definition of vegan fashion is clothing, shoes, bags, and other accessories that do not contain any animal materials. Plus, the entire production process is prohibited to harm any animals.
There are more than 5 reasons to choose fast fashion, but here are a few of the top points. In general, it was hard for customers to know the underbelly of the production before this issue had been emphasized because it happened behind closed doors. For instance, some animals are being tortured and exploited; some animals are being killed before turning mature; some animals are being raised merely for use purposes. These issues do not happen only in the fashion industry but also clothing, cosmetic, and food industries. From the perspective of these industries, the primary target is to earn profit and that comes at the expense of animal rights and sometimes their lives.
Besides the direct impact on animals, environmental impact is also the reason to support the vegan fashion concept. The ruminants like sheep and cows can cause enormously high greenhouse gas emissions by belching for example. Second, lots of chemicals and pesticides are being used on the land livestock grazes on, and sometimes even on the animals themselves. A variety of toxic chemicals are used in the process of cleaning and painting hides and coats, and all of these will end up in the air and groundwater. It may even lead to heavily contaminated water and food in the surrounding area, which causes humans and animals kinds of health problems.