Are they? Well, yes and no. There’s no perfect answer, at least not yet. For now, we will have to decide between materials made by an industry that treats living beings like commodities and has a vast impact on the environment on the one hand, and then man-made fibers on the other. And even though both ethically and environmentally speaking, those are considerably less bad, they still come with their very own set of problems: They are made from oil which again means methane emissions, wildlife disruption, and potential oil spills.7 They are not biodegradable and can only be recycled when kept pure (which, btw, we take care of when it comes to our filling material) and if you haven’t heard about micro plastic, there’s a whole other rabbit hole for you to go down.
So yes, synthetics are a real problem and there’s no denying that. But while everybody here at the Embassy agrees that petrol-based, man-made materials are not the final answer in what is an ongoing quest for the perfect fibers to protect us naked humans from the elements, data (and our intrinsic moral compass) clearly lead us away from using animals like objects and looking at their hair and skin as material.
Luckily, we live in a time where textile innovation is in full bloom. From mushroom leather to lab-grown fur, loads and loads of new ideas and materials are in the works as I write this and we can’t wait to do our part in pushing the envelope of what’s possible in fashion. We’re here to create the future of outerwear, good not only for the people wearing it, but with a positive ipact for garment workers, the environment and the animal kingdom instead.
We’d love it if you would accompany us on our journey.
Sending love from
The Embassy