Vegan fashion to come under new ‘100% animal-free’ guidelines and label in UK
The 100% VEGAN label means eliminating popular materials such as leather, suede and wool, as well ingredients used in making the product, such as glues, dyes and waxes.
ZOE WOOD: ‘While eating ethically – a banner that covers Fairtrade, organic, vegetarian and plant-based alternatives – has taken off, the clothing market has been a laggard. Ethical fashion spending is only £50m, which is a fraction of the £35bn fashion market… However, growing concern about the climate crisis and the role played by fast fashion means attitudes to consumption are changing fast, particularly among young people…
New guidelines have been set out by the retail business to ensure that vegan fashions are really 100% free of animal products. The guidelines come at a time of soaring demand for vegan fashion from retailers ranging from specialist independent labels to Marks & Spencer, Topshop and New Look. However, the fashion industry is trailing behind supermarkets, where one in five of all new products launched last year were vegan…
The new guidelines for producing vegan fashion have been drawn up by the British Retail Consortium (BRC), the trade body for stores and online sellers, after it was inundated with requests from fashion buyers trying to source vegan products for the first time… Leah Riley Brown, a sustainability policy adviser at the BRC, said if retailers followed the guidelines to the letter, shoppers could be 100% confident that the products they bought were truly vegan.
The process is more complex than just eliminating popular materials such as leather, suede and wool. Businesses must examine every material used in a product, including the ingredients of the glues, dyes and waxes used. The BRC warns retailers they should should not claim a product is sustainable simply because it is vegan – a definition that means only the product contains no animal-derived materials or ingredients’. SOURCE…
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