Shoppers are looking for leather free alternatives more than ever before as people learn about the cruelty to animals, environmental impact and worker abuse linked with animal derived clothing.
Vegan on Female First
A new material called Piñatex is the first fabric to receive a "PETA-Approved Vegan" logo. It supplies compassionate designers and shops with sustainable and high performance vegan leather.
Piñatex has been created by textile company Ananas Anam. It is made from the fibres of pineapple leaves - which are a by-product of the fruit's harvest. Therefore, no extra land, water or pesticides are required to make it. The high-quality fabric is the result of seven years of research and is already used by the fashion brands Po-Zu, nae and Vegatar.
"Ananas Anam's Piñatex fabric uses cutting-edge technology to create cruelty-free designs that are both sustainable and chic", says PETA's senior manager of corporate products, Yvonne Taylor. "PETA celebrates innovations that show how outdated wearing animal skins is and how easy it is to look fabulous while being kind to all living beings."
PETA - whose motto reads, in part, that "animals are not ours to wear" says that animals killed for leather endure castration, branding, tail-docking and dehorning without pain relief before they are skinned and dismembered alive.
The tanneries are also notorious for polluting the surrounding land and water as well as exposing workers to excessive amounts of toxic chemicals, including arsenic. Approximately 90 per cent of all tannery workers in Bangladesh die before the age of 50.
Ananas Anam earned it the 2016 Award for Materials Innovation from the Arts Foundation UK and the Innovation Award at the 2015 PETA UK Vegan Fashion Awards.
The "PETA-Approved Vegan" logo ensures designers and retailers can highlight their cruelty-free items and raise awareness of sustainable and ethical fashion.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.