Animal materials and fibres in the fashion industry are one of the trickiest topics to navigate, with a double issue at stakes: the environmental impact yes, but also animal welfare. Strap yourselves, this might be a bit hard to read, but is incredibly important to learn about.

Animal-derived materials brings another layer of immorality to the fashion industry: Animal suffering.

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Animal materials and fibres have long been entrenched in the fashion industry, but their production comes at a great cost to both animals and the planet. Thanks to the dedicated work and investigations of animal rights and welfare associations, many cruel and inhumane practices have been unveiled to the public, participating to the sharp decline in popularity and use of animal products by brands and consumers. This decrease is particularly noticeable in the use of fur and exotic skins (leather), with the rise of innovative vegan materials.

However, the most well-known cases of animal suffering around rare skins and the treatment of crocodiles or snakes are not the only animal cruelty to be pointed in the industry. Sadly, when looking at animal material production, suffering is the rule more often than the exception. To cite a few that might be less known to you:

• Angora wool comes from Angora rabbits’ fur, which requires live plucking of the hair. While needed a long recovery, the process will happen multiple time over their short lives of 2 to 3 years.

• Down: the soft layer of feathers closest to birds’ skin, used to make clothing and duvets, is directly ripped from ducks and Geese.

• Silk: most silkworms are never reaching their moth stage, being boiled or gassed alive inside their cocoons

• Wool: The wool industry is as old as times.  Although, this industry is not the same it used to be. it's intensification has led to inhumane practices such as mulesing and brutal shearing, raising concerns and indignation as they constitute avoidable violence towards lambs and sheep (see article dedicated to wool).

We know that these are deeply disturbing and open a lot of questions. The root cause of such atrocities can once again be attributed to the pursuit of intensive and extensive production. The need for high volumes and profitability at lower prices has a cost: animal welfare. In fact, many of these practices are byproducts of the meat and farming industries. When animals no longer serve their primary purpose, they are often sent for slaughter, enduring horrendous transport conditions and ultimately meeting their end in equally appalling circumstances.  

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The environmental impacts: aggravating the case.

Sadly, the animal welfare is not the only thing against the use of animal derived materials and fibres: their environmental impact is equally alarming. Land use and deforestation are a major consequence of the industry. Land is being cleared and trees cut down to make room for grazing sheep. The grazing, without talking about methane releases, leads to erosion, increased soil salinity, and decreased biodiversity.

Cashmere: a case in point.

Derived from the undercoat of goats, Cashmere wool mainly originates from Mongolia and China, where approximately 90% of global production occurs. The process involves combing and shearing goats annually, typically around May. However, sustaining this industry demands a huge goat population, as each animal only yields about 250 grams of usable hair for per year. The environmental repercussions are profound. Goats consume 10% of their body weight daily, graze on grasses' roots, impeding regrowth and contributing to soil degradation. For this reason, cashmere production is a key contributor to desertification in entire regions of Mongolia.

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Leather: Concentrated toxicity

If leather was not mentioned in the previous section, it is worth noting its particularly nasty environmental impacts. Turning animal skin into leather involves the use of many harmful chemicals, dyes, and finishes, along with substantial energy consumption to facilitate the process. The effluent discharged from tanneries contain washed-out chemicals such as sulphur, nitrogen, and ammonia, contaminating major waterways. Consequently, leather, originally a natural material, becomes virtually impossible to biodegrade without causing soil pollution due to these processes.

Obviously we couldn’t possibly go through each of the animal fibres in this article and their specific impacts on the environment. You can find great in-depth articles wrote by Good on You on each fibre (fur, leather...). However, we’re not going to leave you like this after listing these terrible impacts and what seems to be fewer and fewer choices in terms of what we should wear.  

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What should I do?

Rest assured, animal fibres are not completely off the charts or to be thrown away. The first step may just involve being mindful of the garments that you own by trying to make the items last. Buying second-hand animal-based fibres wherever possible is also an option. When it comes to buying new, it’ll be hard to find any animal-friendly products, except for wool, when produced locally, and ideally organic.

For the rest, we would of course advise to look at plant-based, preferably organic fibres (especially when it comes to cotton). A couple of examples here:

Hemp

Hemp is a robust, fast-growing plant. Its cultivation is very environmentally friendly: it requires little energy or water and doesn’t require any herbicides or pesticides. Very easy to grow, it can be easily grown in Europe. Bonus point: its cultivation has a positive impact, capturing greenhouse gases: 1 hectare of hemp absorbs 5 times more carbon dioxide than the same area of equatorial forest.

Linen:

Linen is the most local fibre, mostly grown in Europe. It’s also highly sustainable requiring no human irrigation, and 5 to 10 times fewer pesticides than cotton - the must, of course, being organic linen. Additionally, the transformation process into fibre is mechanical meaning it doesn’t use water or solvents, and produces no waste as everything is reused. It's also a durable and resistant material.

Look at our dedicated article to learn more about plant-base fibres.

Of course, these fibres cannot mimic materials like leather and are hardly useable for footwear for example. That is why it is interesting to look at brands that now fully focused on vegan materials, innovating and offering durable alternatives.

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‍Alternatives

Here are some innovative-but-not-too-high-tech-that-you-can’t-find-it-anywhere fibres:

Vegan leathers:

Apple leather and Pina-tex are the most accessible vegan leather available. Other less widespread option are Mylo (mushroom leather) or cactus leather.  

Vegan leathers is really smart because it is made off unused fruits and veggie skins from the food industry, making it a cross-industrial solution that tackles waste in one and creates eco-alternative in the other.

However, keep in mind that these fabrics are NOT 100% natural and biodegradable. The downside being that they still need to use a synthetic resin to make it stick as a fabric, which alters its biodegradibility.

However, it is still a great alternative for all leather-based products as it solves the "immediate problems such as preventing the cruel treatment of animals,

or savagely slaughtering animals to provide materials for the fashion industry" (Minh & Ngan, 2021).

A lovely example of a brand to check out is Nae. This Portugues brand makes everything in Europe with innovative materials. We visited their shops in Lisbon personally and we’ve met passionate people.

https://www.nae-vegan.com

Cork

Cork serves as a prime example that not all forward-looking materials require cutting-edge technology; sometimes, nature itself provides elegant solutions. Harvesting the outer bark of cork trees, scientifically known as quercus suber, doesn't harm the trees; instead, it facilitates increased carbon absorption and storage from our atmosphere. A lot of bags are now made with Cork as a more ethical option to leather.

https://thecorkcollection.net/

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Flower down

We don’t know about you, but at VOICE we really like the idea of being kept warm by flowers. That’s what PANGAIA proposes, with its innovative vegan down made from wildflowers. It uses a biopolymer to insulate and make it water repellent, but it’s totally biodegradable.

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Recycled fibres?

You can also check out recycled animal fibres. They tend to be a bit expensive, but might be more affordable as the industry develops.

Recycled wool

Wool is a great candidate to be mechanically recycled, which means that products are shredded and rewoven without any chemicals. On top of that, all fibres, short or long can be recycled, and no extra dye is needed when done properly (recycled by colour) and you can already find products made with it, usually blended with virgin wool as for now it is still and expensive material.

Repurposed leather

Recycled leather can be made from rescued deadstock skins, repurposed vintage clothing or upcycled production waste. However, It’s still rare to find post-consumer leather being recycled: maybe that is an idea to explore.

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