Vegan Fashion Week is the newest addition to the sustainable fashion movement, and it’s taking an ethical approach to design. In light of Los Angeles’s ban on the manufacturing and selling of animal fur, set to take effect in 2020, Emmanuelle Rienda founded Vegan Fashion Week.

Vegan Fashion Week aims to increase awareness of animal exploitation and encourage fashion lovers to consider the consequences of garment manufacturing. Rienda told Vogue in January, “Now is the time to create a fashion week that shows how being vegan today is not only about animals—it’s about being good to all beings on the planet, humans included. It’s not a matter of style anymore. It’s a matter of choice.”

Before becoming a globally noted activist, Rienda, like most vegans, underwent her own personal journey that led her to activism. She moved to LA in 2008 from her birthplace, Clermont-Ferrand, France, to open an agency for fast fashion French labels to gain headway in the American market. At this point, she was a vegetarian, but somewhere along the way, she adopted veganism.

Since then, she felt the need to align her values with her work. Not only did she learn the environmental impacts of fast fashion, she also saw the toll it took on animals. She began styling celebrities, such as Disney star Olivia Rodrigo, who requested to be dressed in animal-free garments. Taken aback, Rienda found herself inspired by the next generation.

The event launched in February 2019 in LA with the theme “Facing Our Time” and received tremendous media buzz from the likes of Vogue and The New York Times. The two-day trade show, held just before New York Fashion Week began, featured runways and the first vegan fashion showroom in history.

The “Future of Fashion” conference, also founded by Rienda, took place as well, serving as a platform for industry leaders from designers to scientists to discuss fashion alternatives. Rienda told Vogue, “What I’m really trying to do [with VFW] is to create a platform to bring designers together and show that the future of fashion is actually here... Our generation needs to act right now. I believe we can do it right away with what we wear and what we eat every day.”

VFW returned to the same city in October 2019, themed “Fashion is Activism,” kicking off with a night of awards recognizing vegan creatives who work to protect fundamental animal rights. The show opened with New York designer ENDA, followed by Mayd in Chyna, Patrick McDowell, Wasted LA, Nicoline Hansen, Minttu Melasalmi and several more.

The models stomped on a matte black runway, showing off the eclectic but innovative designs. Each designer brought their own aesthetic to the stage; where ENDA served simple airiness, Minttu Melasalmi gave clean metallics and Nicoline Hansen showed architectural femininity.

Major fashion houses joined the movement in the past few decades, including Gucci, Donatella Versace, Prada, Giorgio Armani, Michael Kors, and most recently Maison Margiela. Many of these brands stopped designing with real fur after conversations with PETA and the Humane

Society of the United States. This shows that there is a place for activism in fashion because it’s working.

The production of fur, leather and even wool is a disturbing process where millions of animals are killed annually for their skins. They are kept in cramped cages their whole lives, only to be killed by suffocation, electrocution, and poison. Many Chinese fur and leather manufacturers skin animals alive as well. During the shearing process for wool, sheep commonly lose strips of skin, teats, tails and ears, and are beaten when they cry out in pain. Sustainability is the new buzzword in the fashion industry, but ethical material sourcing is just beginning to reach designers and consumers who care.

The VFW site features a quote by Rienda that reads, “The relationship between fashion, factory farming, and climate change cannot be ignored. Vegan sustainable fashion is the ultimate answer to climate change and waste pollution. I created an inclusive and collaborative movement dedicated to redesigning the industry and the consumers’ daily habits” as a “creative ode to the end of animal exploitation and a celebration of human evolution.”

More and more, consumers are taking back their power from big business by carefully choosing to support practices they align with. As the fashion industry continues to evolve at a rapid pace, with creatives taking initiative towards art with integrity, it’s up to the market of individuals to decide if ethics should continue to be embraced.

VFW is the Ethical Fashion Revolution