Sustainable & Ethical Fashion: Faux has Never Looked so Real-or this Stylish!

From fur-free ‘fur’ to recycled plastics, high-end fashion brands are constantly finding innovative ways to produce and sell clothing that’s saving animals. 

The newest move in heading towards a more sustainable and ethical future comes from The Yoox Net-a-Porter Group, banning all fur from their online platforms.

Head of Sustainability at Yoox Net-A-Porter Group, Matteo James Moroni, revealed to Standard UK: “YNAP is on a very important journey towards managing environmental impact responsibly.”

With Net-A-Porter especially housing fashion brands notorious for their use of fur and shearling such as Fendi, Gucci, Moncler and Joseph, it is particularly a big deal that a fur-free policy has been introduced.

But combatting ethical and environmental issues doesn’t stop there! Many designers are embracing what seems to be the future of fashion.

Armani went fur-free last year, Alexa Chung’s new label is free of fur, angora, or exotic skins and Stella McCartney’s newest venture is in creating garments from, well…garbage.

Yep, you read right, recycled plastics recovered from our polluted oceans to be exact. What a fashionable way to celebrate World Oceans Day (June 8th)!

In collaboration with Parley for the Oceans, McCartney plans to use a yarn fibre created by using objects such as fishing nets, debris and bottles! Crazy, huh?

A reminder to save our bleaching and polluted oceans, there’s also a new Adidas x Parley UltraBOOST fleet shoe, made from Parley Ocean Plastic, that will be available worldwide as of June 28th. With a baby blue hue, they look pretty gnarly!

But never fear! If cute flats that are stylish and comfortable are more your thing, U.S brand Rothy’s are also creating environmentally-friendly shoes made from recycled plastic bottles. Surely everyone should catch on to this recycled, cruelty- free, better for the environment way of thinking soon enough!

Of course, while socially it becomes more and more unacceptable to use animal-based materials, the move towards using sustainable, eco-friendly and ethical materials is also gaining popularity as substitute textiles are only getting better as technology progresses.

As a luxury brand, Stella McCartney told the Guardian that she was at first hesitant to jump on the bandwagon, fearing that the quality of substitute textiles just weren’t up to her standard. “I avoided using fake [leather] because it never looked luxurious enough,” McCartney said.

But, vegetarian McCartney knew changes needed to be made. And we’re glad they happened.

Admiring Stella McCartney’s gorgeous designs, you wouldn’t even know her ‘furs’, ‘suedes’ or ‘leathers’ aren’t the real deal. I mean c’mon!

“I am so excited that we have finally developed fabrics that look just as good as the real thing and therefore genuinely pose a question to the industry about why anyone needs to use leather any more,” McCartney said.

Just looking at these stunning and ethical pieces from different designers, it begs to ask the question “If that’s what ‘fake’ looks like, then shouldn’t everyone be doing it?” It’s time for everyone to get on board as fashion marches inexorably towards progress.