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uxury fashion designers seem to be finally leaving behind the idea of taking from nature to benefit their brand, and are asking instead how they can create a brand that benefits nature. Accessories companies, for example, are re-evaluating the way they think about materials. Whereas in the past they had often been captivated by the skins and furs of animals, they are now shifting to promoting cruelty-free, wholly natural fabrics. It comes at a time where transparency and sustainability are the new vogue, and these luxury brands are picking up on that. This shift in trend is essential to the industry; it’s also a game changer. Chanel is one of the most prominent brands taking note of, and promoting, this change. In the past, the skins of crocodiles, lizards, snakes, sharks, and stingrays have been an integral part of Chanel’s handbag collections. Yet, earlier this year, the brand announced that it is halting the usage of these skins, because it is finding it hard to ethically obtain these materials. Chanel claims that “this is a decision which provides an opportunity to create a new generation of high-end products that respect our fundamentals.” Chanel’s anti-exotic skins decision is also seen as a response to their target customers’ preference for purchasing products that they believe to be environmentally friendly. While Gucci, Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, and many others are still trying to secure skins that are produced through a ‘cruelty-free’ process, often by purchasing their own farms, Chanel has determined it is time to flee from the erroneous use of animal skins altogether. PETA has spoken out quite favorably towards Chanel’s course of action, rather than the private farm path other brands are taking. This preference is due to the uncertainty surrounding the process of producing animal skins and whether it can truly ever be a 100% crueltyfree process. According to Christina Sewell, PETA’s manager of fashion campaigns, PETA was surprised by Chanel’s action, because PETA had been urging Chanel executives to abandon exotic animal skins since 2015. PETA recognizes that, as a leader in the fashion industry, Chanel’s decision promises change for the business of fashion towards more eco-friendly practices, a necessary shift in today’s climate. Stella McCartney is another designer taking
16 | MODA Magazine | Spring 2019
leaps to switch up the priorities in the fashion world and use alternative natural materials in her handbag collections. Her brand is partnering with BOLT threads, a biotech company, to implement the use of biomaterials, instead of leather, in handbag collections. ‘Mylo’ is the first of these biomaterials to be implemented into McCartney’s design of the renowned Falabella handbag. Mylo originates from an underground root system named mycelium. McCartney’s brand is transparent with the processes of creating mylo, emphasizing that mycelium is a renewable resource and its production refrains from use of toxic chemicals. The material resembles leather in appearance and texture, while also presenting a unique variety of thickness in each sheet of material. The advanced material is giving the newest collection a one-of-akind feel. McCartney has consistently committed her brand to ethical luxury. It’s a promise that they will not harm the environment, and it’s a promise that consumer are increasingly drawn to. The designer admits that historically the fashion industry has not been especially eco-friendly, to put it lightly, and she wants to change that. “The only way for me to start the conversation I want to start is by making a product that you want to buy and that you are going to spend your hard-earned money on...If I don’t have a successful business, then I’m an environmentalist who happens to be Paul McCartney’s daughter, and that is a conversation which lasts about three seconds.” McCartney is on the hunt for alternative materials that will get consumers involved in a more sustainable fashion trend. She sees it as an extremely necessary push due to the current lack of support and energy the fashion world gives to environmental causes. In a time of rising global temperatures and increasingly unsustainable, and inhumane, treatment of animals, the earth is in trouble. The fashion industry has been a detriment to the environment over the years, but some brands are starting to take action and find sustainable materials that they can be transparent about and encourage consumers to get behind. These designers are making the waves upon which the rest of the market shall, hopefully, ride. It’s a much needed, and long awaited, push. The question is how long will it last? Are we really witnessing the end of exotic skins in fashion? Or will this prove a momentary movement?
