Stella McCartney Talks Sustainability and Fashion’s Animal-Free Future
Stella McCartney is once again flying the flag for compassion in fashion. On the eve of her autumn/winter 2020 show at Paris Fashion Week, she gathered fashion professionals, government officials, and animal protection organisations, including PETA France, to talk about climate change and the use of animals in fashion.
At the informal roundtable event, the British designer explained how unsustainable and completely unnecessary it is to use animal skin or hair in fashion. Multiple studies highlight that the use of animal-derived materials is contributing to environmental degradation.
McCartney welcomed moves by other fashion labels towards more compassionate practices and spoke enthusiastically about the innovative, eco-friendly vegan materials used in her collection.
The Power of the Consumer
Christiana Figueres, former executive secretary of the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change and guest of honour at the roundtable, emphasised our responsibility and influence as consumers, noting, “We tend to underestimate the power of the individual.”
According to Figueres, “the market incentive” – that is, efforts by increasing numbers of young consumers to seek out eco-friendly and animal-free clothing – is a driving force behind the positive ethical changes that companies are making.
Raising and Killing Animals: A Thing of the Past
Figueres’ outlook is optimistic. She’s confident that wearing and eating animals will soon be a thing of the past:
“Any child who will be a child in 2040, 2050 will turn around to all of us and say, ‘Wait, hold on, can you explain something to me? Did you actually use to raise animals to kill them or put them on your body? Is that really true?’ Because it is going to be so much of a thing of the past – and because social tolerance for that is just diminishing.”
Animal Rights Takes Over the Runway
The day after the roundtable, the finale of McCartney’s much-anticipated autumn/winter 2020 fashion show saw models strut down the catwalk dressed in animal costumes – a cow, a fox, an alligator, and other species commonly exploited for their skins – as a reminder that these animals and others continue to be abused and killed for fashion, even though high-quality, sustainable vegan leather, faux fur, and other alternatives are widely available.
In the lead-up to the event, the label posted a series of tongue-in-cheek cartoons with strong animal rights messages on its Instagram account – showing cows, foxes, and snakes reminding everyone that their skin belongs to them!
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Join the Movement
The future of fashion is animal-free. Top designers like McCartney are leading the charge, and other key industry change-makers are increasingly following suit.
Encourage more brands to join the movement and stop supporting the cruel and unnecessary killing of animals for fashion: send e-mails to designers, fashion houses, and retailers urging them to stop using animal-derived materials in their collections.
