Why Vegan Fashion?
Vegan fashion removes animal materials from the equation. Here's what replaces them, why it matters, and what it actually costs.
What makes fashion vegan
Vegan fashion means no leather, no wool, no silk, no down, no fur, and no exotic skins. It's a clear line: if it came from an animal, it's not in the product. That sounds simple, but in an industry where animal-derived materials are deeply embedded, from the lining of a jacket to the glue holding a shoe together, it requires brands to rethink every layer of what they make.
Every brand on Forthgreen meets this standard completely. Not partially, not "mostly" — 100% vegan across every product they sell.
The materials replacing them
The generation of materials replacing animal products is more diverse than most people realise. For everyday fabrics, brands use organic cotton, linen, hemp, and Tencel (a fibre made from sustainably harvested wood pulp). For performance and outerwear, recycled polyester and recycled nylon give plastic waste a second life.
The most exciting developments are in leather alternatives. Pinatex is made from pineapple leaf fibre, a by-product of the fruit harvest. Desserto uses nopal cactus, which grows in arid land with minimal water. Apple leather repurposes waste from the juice industry. And mycelium leather, grown from mushroom roots, is being scaled by companies like Bolt Threads and MycoWorks.
These materials aren't perfect — some still use a percentage of polyurethane as a binding agent — but they're improving with every production cycle, and they're already far less resource-intensive than what they replace.
The environmental case
Animal agriculture for fashion carries a heavy environmental cost. Livestock farming accounts for around 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Leather tanning uses chromium and other toxic chemicals that contaminate waterways. Wool production requires vast grazing land, contributing to soil degradation and biodiversity loss.
Vegan alternatives generally perform better. A 2021 study by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition found that plant-based leather alternatives produce up to 40% fewer carbon emissions than conventional bovine leather. Organic cotton uses 91% less water than conventional cotton. Recycled polyester cuts energy use by up to 59% compared to producing virgin polyester from petroleum.
This isn't about perfection — it's about direction. The vegan materials being used today have a measurably lower footprint, and the gap is widening as the technology matures.
Why it costs more
If you've noticed that vegan fashion tends to cost more than fast fashion, you're not imagining it. There are real reasons behind the price difference, and none of them are about charging a premium for a label.
Newer materials cost more to produce. Plant-based leathers like Pinatex and Desserto are still manufactured at a fraction of the scale of conventional leather. Smaller production runs mean higher per-unit costs — the same economics that make any new technology expensive at first.
Certified supply chains aren't cheap. Ensuring fair wages, safe working conditions, and verified environmental standards across every supplier adds cost. Many vegan brands choose certified sustainable factories over the cheapest option available.
Quality over volume. Most vegan brands produce less, on purpose. Smaller collections, better fabrics, construction that's designed to last. That's the opposite of the fast fashion model, where low prices depend on enormous volume and disposability.
The price you see reflects what it actually costs to make something well, pay everyone fairly, and use materials that don't depend on industrialised animal farming. As these materials scale and more brands enter the space, costs will come down — but the value was always there.