A new year is as good a reason as any to give some serious thought to what you wear and where it comes from.

To kick off January in the best possible fashion, we’re already looking to the Veganuary campaign – which, as well as promoting a plant-based diet to reboot our bodies, encourages a positive shift towards cruelty-free style and beauty. After all, 2019 is already being dubbed “The Year of the Vegan”... Get on board!

With so many ways to embrace abstaining from animal produce – from what we put inside our bodies, to what we wear on the outside with our beauty and fashion choices, there’s no time like the present to switch over to the ethical side. Having long championed those designers and individuals making sustainable strides in the industry – such as AntibadBy Independent Thinkers for Environmental Progress (BITE) and Lilian von Trapp – we’re well acquainted with vegan-friendly brands aplenty. And SO many of them are doing it so very well...



We were delighted to see the design world collectively give real fur the finger in 2018, with major houses like Burberry, Versace, Maison Margiela, John Paul Gaultier, Coach and Tom Ford vowing to use only fake fuzz in their collections and eschewing unethical practice for good. Meanwhile, designers on a smaller scale are now too favouring faux and building their brands exclusively around it; from sustainability advocate Emma Brewin, and her made-to-order berets, bucket hats, tactile scarfs and coats, plus Hannah Weiland and her ready-to-wear line, Shrimps, that leads the way with cult and cute creations.

 

Elsewhere, ethical design stalwartStella McCartney, continues to set the industry standard. Last year, we saw her tread new territory with her Loop shoe, which pushed her environmentally friendly philosophy further care of special stitching and technically-designed hooks that hold everything together in place of toxic glue. Trainers aside, the designer has been a frontrunner in championing cruelty-free faux leather for the best part of two decades, crafting her vegetarian pieces with the now-signature 'skin-free-skin' fabric. Younger brands following suit to note include Huishan Zhang, who we've seen introduce vegan leather via his couture-esque aesthetic, alongside Sandra Sandor's Budapest-based label, Nanushka, which embraces vegan leather as a mainstay, from full looks in the hide-not-hide fabric to the most cult-status of accessories.


 

Make your new year's resolution something special this 2019 – and better yet, stick to it! 


Shop the top vegan leather and faux fur here:




Also on Because Magazine:

+ This Copenhagen brand is going behind bars (literally) to create ethically minded designs.

+ Amy Powney of Mother of Pearl is a one woman army when it comes to sustainable style...

+ This small-scale London brand is championing female artisans.