Designers Masaba Gupta, Gaurav Gupta, Rocky Star, Siddartha Tytler, Vikram Phadnis and Many Others Pledge to Be Leather-Free Ahead of World Fashion Day
On World Fashion Day (21 August), 33 leading designers have agreed to give leather the boot after being asked by PETA India and Lakmé Fashion Week to stop using the material in order to benefit animals and the environment. Top designers who won’t be using leather include Gaurav Gupta, House of Masaba by Masaba Gupta, JADE by Monica and Karishma, péro by Aneeth Arora, Ranna Gill, Shyamal & Bhumika, Sonaakshi Raaj, Siddartha Tytler, Rina Dhaka, Vikram Phadnis, Rocky Star, Atsu Sekhose, dev r nil, and Bloni by Akshat Bansal. Anita Dongre and Purvi Doshi have been leather-free for a while.
Masaba Gupta
“Sustainability in fashion is multifold; animal cruelty and the toxic effluents from tanneries are key issues that need to be addressed alongside others,” says Darshana Gajare, head of sustainability for Lakmé Fashion Week/RISE Worldwide. “It’s promising to see the responses from Indian fashion designers, it’s a crucial step in the right direction. We’re committed to fashion being ethical towards animals and value our association with PETA India.”
Akshat Bansal
Siddartha Tytler
In visits to slaughterhouses, PETA India has documented that cattle are crammed into vehicles so tightly that many suffer from broken bones or die of suffocation. In order to kill them, slaughterhouse workers slit their throats in full view of others – even though these animals are just as sensitive to pain as we are. And according to the 2017 “Pulse of the Fashion Industry” report published by the Global Fashion Agenda in collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group, leather is the most polluting material used in fashion.
Vegan leather can be made with materials as varied as cork, mangoes, coconut, pineapple leaves, recycled plastic, mushrooms, tomato composite, grapes, and discarded temple flowers. In addition to saving animals, these options avoid the environmental and societal costs associated with animal-derived leather, including greenhouse-gas emissions, deforestation to raise cows, and toxic tannery waste that pollutes the Ganges and harms tannery workers.
Here’s the full list of designers who have signed the leather-free pledge:
- Aartivijay Gupta
- Amrapali Singh, Birdwalk
- Anuj Sharma, Button Masala
- Atsu Sekhose
- Bloni by Akshat Bansal
- dev r nil
- Divya Sheth
- Ek Katha by Madhumita Nath
- Gaurav Gupta
- Hemang Agrawal
- House of Masaba by Masaba Gupta
- JADE by Monica and Karishma
- Myoho by Kiran Jaisinghani and Meghna Agarwal
- Krishna Mehta
- LOOM 1905 by Rinku Sobti
- Pallavi Jaipur
- Pallavi Singh
- Pankaja Sethi
- P.E.L.L.A
- péro by Aneeth Arora
- Pinnacle by Shruti Sancheti
- Prama by Pratima Pandey
- Ranna Gill
- Rina Dhaka
- Rocky Star
- Saltpetre
- Shyamal & Bhumika
- Siddartha Tytler
- Sneha Arora
- Sonaakshi Raaj
- Surendri by Yogesh Chaudhary
- Tinka and Rixi Bhatia, Half Full Curve
- Vikram Phadnis
Pledge to Lose the Leather Now!
