PETA Takes Center Stage at Glaamour School of Fashion and Interiors
Creative minds, like the fashion and interior design students at the Glaamour School of Fashion and Interiors in Kolkata, thrive on inspiration and innovation, which is exactly what Benazir Suraiya – a former model and PETA’s associate manager of celebrity and media projects –brought to the table when she gave an exciting talk on vegan fashion on 20th April.
No one needs to murder animals to create a gorgeous pair of boots or the perfect armchair, but the global leather industry kills more than a billion animals every year. In India, cows and other animals killed for leather are commonly crammed onto vehicles in such high numbers that their bones break, they suffocate and many die in route. At the slaughterhouse, their throats are typically hacked at with dull knives in full view of their companions. In China,the leather industry beats dogs to death for their skins and since labels don’t say “dog leather,” unsuspecting customers around the world don’t realize who they’re wearing or what they’re supporting when they purchase these items.
Today’s fashionistas and entertainers want stylish aesthetics without torturing and killing animals.That’s why India now prohibits the importation of reptile skins and certain furs . The fur industry suffocates, poisons, electrocutes, bludgeons, hangs or bleeds to death dogs, cats, foxes, minks, rabbits and other animals, but faux fur is made without taking animals’ lives and it looks and feels just as plush for pillows and coats.
Students had the chance to check out samples of faux fur, vegan leather and banana silk – yes, you read that correctly! Why support the steaming and gassing to death of countless silkworms(it takes approximately 3,000 silkworms to produce one pound of silk) when we can make silk out of fruit? Benazir also screened three fashion forward films to Glaamour’s fashion and interior design students, and one features the voices of Ricky Gervais and Pink.
Vegan fashion FTW!
