A new Vegan Fashion Section is now available at Goshopia.com. Araceli Gallego, our Co-founder, knows very well how challenging can be to find sustainable goods in the Middle East. Therefore, she decided to launch Goshopia, as a way to create a community of consumers and designers who share the same values such as the love for the Earth and the commitment to a more sustainable lifestyle.
The new vegan section within the website wants to welcome the vegan community offering a selection of vegan garments that still comply with our 3S´s or core values: Slow, Sustainable, and Socially Responsible. Now vegans can wear their values without compromising their style at Goshopia. Mind you not all the products in Goshopia are vegan, but you can rest assured they respect one way or another Mama Earth.
WHY NOW?
It is amazing to see how every day more and more people become aware of the need to take care of our planet and all the beings that inhabit it.
Some may join the strikes to demand real action from governments. Some others use public transportation or bicycles in their daily activities. Others prefer to buy their groceries from local ecological producers, gather to clean the beach, or speak up about how plastic is damaging our ecosystems. The conscious fashionistas wear slow, sustainable, and socially responsible garments – like the ones you can find here! And others chose to go vegan, not only in their diet but also in everything they may consume.
This month we wanted to join Veganuary and launch our new Vegan Fashion Section. What? You don’t know what Veganuary is? Read on.
WHAT EXACTLY IS VEGANUARY?
It is a growing movement that encourages people all around the world to try to be vegan for one month: January. Chances are that if you enjoy the change, you might introduce more plant-based food throughout the rest of the year o even shift totally to veganism.
The impact is huge. Think about it! As thousands of people go meatless at least during a whole month, they are not only saving those animals, but also protecting the environment, and improving their health. Many brands, restaurants, and supermarkets around the world are part of the movement and offer special vegan menus.
The Veganuary challenge started in the U.K. in 2014 when a non-profit organization encouraged people to go vegan during January. January in our opinion is the perfect month for this. Not just because it is that time of the year, we tend to make good resolutions for the year ahead but also because many people accept the idea to detox their systems after all that extra food that comes with Christmas and New Year’s celebrations.
Veganism believes in a cruelty-free world. A world where food production does not pollute our planet. It is easy to find information about how our production and consumption patterns are driving to climate change and wild animal populations to extinction.
HEALTH AND VEGANISM
To be honest, there are different opinions and we still need to go deeper into what experts may say about a 100% plant-based diet. But we are sure that increasing the intake of greens in your daily meals will bring many benefits to you, such as reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Plants are rich in fiber, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and hydration. So the mix of greens and grains is essential for your healthy cocktail.
A month is pretty doable, we think. However, note that trying Veganuary requires effort and you need to commit to planning your meals, especially if you want to go beyond January. You must make sure that you have an adequate intake of nutrients to keep your body in balance.
Our recommendation, go to your doctor, get a good checkup and tell him/ her about your plans to become a vegan. They might prescribe some vitamins like B12 and give you some good advice.
LEARNING FROM THE EXPERTS
Meet Shruti Jain, founder of Styledestino.com and AddressChic – a digital magazine and shop where you can find lots of vegan and ethical products and articles about the vegan lifestyle. Shruti and Araceli have been friends for years. They even did a podcast together talking about Shruti´s venture into e-commerce with her vegan shop. If you want to listen, this is the link.
WHAT IS VEGAN FASHION?
We asked Shruti for the best definition of Vegan Fashion. She says “A vegan lifestyle shuns animal cruelty in all forms and any product that’s “vegan” contains no animal ingredients or materials. So essentially, vegan fashion is clothing, shoes, bags and other fashion accessories made without any animal materials including leather, silk, wool, fur, feather, cashmere, and pearl”.
When it comes to sustainable vegan fashion, Vegans are not limited to cotton, linen, or hemp. There are many other high-tech and recycled fabrics that are more endurable such as Tencel, pinatex or mushroom leather. But, since veganism can be understood as a synonym of compassion, humans involved in the process of production are also treated with all due respect.
BASICS OF VEGAN FASHION
Access to kind fashion is getting easier, especially in the United States and Europe. However, a shift in cultural values in favor of animal welfare in other parts of the globe still needs a lot of effort and a louder voice from the vegan community. But, the first step is knowledge. This is the No-way-Jose- list for vegan fashionistas!
- Leather and other exotic skins. As stated on the PETA website, most leather comes from cows that are used for meat and dairy industries. The options to leather are non-animal microfibers, recycled nylon, polyurethane and leather from mushrooms and fruits like apple.
- Wool, Shearling, Cashmere, and Angora. Your vegan options are fabrics made from twill, cotton and recycled polyester.
- No excuses, no animal need to die for us to wear their skin. And the worst thing is that most of these animals are farmed for their skin only, spend their lives in tiny cages and most of the time they are tortured.
- Silk and Feathers. They belong to animals and we do not have any right to take them away. Nylon, milkweed-pod fibers, silk-cotton tree, and polyester are easy alternatives.
Please note that not all these alternatives are necessarily 100% sustainable. They are vegan and follow the value of compassion.
VEGAN FABRICS… HOW DO I KNOW WHAT FABRICS ARE VEGAN OR NOT?
This is a tricky question and we get asked that a lot. That s why we found this very useful list from our friends at Compassionate Closet and we want to share it with you. Take into account that for vegans no animal should have been used in the pieces. For example, no shell buttons or no silk cocoons, even if the butterfly has already left it behind. The idea behind this is that it is not ours to take or use and we should stop seeing animals in a commercial way.
Sustainable advocates would say that we better use what is in Nature rather than create something artificial that would take God knows how long to biodegrade. Different views and here we respect them all.
That is why at Goshopia we go the extra mile and offer you items that are first of all at least one of our 3 S´s: Slow, Sustainable, or Socially Responsible… If these items happen to be also vegan, then, they join our vegan section. So, ecowarriors and vegans are all welcome and happy.
To read the table, just look for your fabric or fiber. They are organized in alphabetical order. V means that is Vegan, N means that is not. Some fabrics might have a V/N, which means that it can be both depending on the fibers used.
Vegan Fabrics and Fibers List
Have any questions about Vegan Fashion?
Please feel free to send us an email or leave a comment below.
And if you want to shop for vegan fashion check the new section of Vegan fashion within Goshopia.
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VALENTINE´S ECO GIFTING GUIDE » Goshopia: Sustainable Fashion
3 February 2020 at 00:13[…] UNDERSTANDING VEGAN FASHION […]