The Fashion Industry

Luxury fashion is a HUGE industry, with $72.76 billion of annual revenue behind it and projected growth in the coming years. Billions of consumers and thousands of manufacturers support luxury fashion brands that influence popular culture as well as our environment and biodiversity. Luxury fashion specifically includes clothing, footwear, and accessories, from brands such as Balenciaga, Fendi, Versace, Burberry, Prada, Gucci, and Dior. Despite the economic hardships of 2020, luxury fashion is one of the few industries that has continued to grow. The production of these high-end items is long and complicated but typically involves the use of some animal products. Recent research shows the inhumanity, unsustainability, and detrimental impacts of fashion, but change to the industry is yet to come. The US is deeply ingrained into these issues being the largest consumer in the world of fashion products. The US imports about $105 billion and $28.8 billion worth of clothing and footwear each year respectively, and exports about $22.9 billion in textiles and $1.14 billion in footwear per year for comparison. 

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Figure 1. Illustration of US Cotton Imports and Exports between 1989 and 2020. Both values are far greater than the data's origin in 1989, but less than peak years of 2000-2005. Imports are consistently a multiplier of exports). 

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The two biggest issues concerning animal products in the fashion industry are the mistreatment of animals, and the negative environmental impacts animal products create. Learn more about both below. 

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Animal Mistreatment 

The most popular (originally animal) textiles are leather, fur, wool, feathers, and silk. Most animals within the process endure factory farming which is known for its inhumanity. Here, animals are forced into suffocating, cramped, disgusting conditions only to be mistreated, skinned, or slaughtered for the creation of luxury apparel. Animals frequently suffer from dehydration, frostbite, disease, shock, or blood loss throughout their stay. A percentage of these factory farms exist in developing countries where items can be mislabeled. Essentially, the designer leather seen in store windows is not guaranteed to be from exotic animals, but dogs, cats, birds, or mules. 

Fur is acquired through the practice of fur farming which typically involves animals like foxes, rabbits, and otters. Europe houses 58% of the world’s fur farms where animals are slaughtered by carbon monoxide gas and electrocution. In the wild, when animals are not immediately slaughtered, they endure brutal injuries and slow deaths. The steel-jaw trap is banned in most countries for its cruelty, but still widely used in Canada, the US, and Russia. 

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Figure 2. (Graph shows the mortality rates of common animals in the fashion industry due to the fashion production process. Emphasis on the units. It's Millions.)

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Leather is especially popular and is presently taken from calves, buffalo, sheep, and deer. In the past, several species (snakes, lizards, crocs, and elephants) were pushed to the point of extinction due to the fashion industry. 54% of this leather goes to the footwear industry, which has doubled in the last 3 decades. The production of leather has been especially detrimental to the environment. 

The use of feathers in fashion has historical roots but today is either derived from birds that are bred and plucked alive every six weeks, or from synthetic feathers which are significantly more ethical. Unfortunately, the lack of regulation makes it impossible for consumers to know which method their garments use.

Each material has its versions of mistreatment towards animals, but they all share a lack of regulation and accountability when it comes to the distance between a living breathing animal and a new wardrobe item. 

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Figure 3. (This Graph shows the top 10 frequencies of poaching incidents of animals and their quantities.)

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Human Health 

Still, the impact of using animal products in luxury fashion has a broader impact than just the animals. Imagine going to work an eight or twelve-hour day slaughtering, skinning, cleaning, and preparing animals. Every day. Research shows that employees in these fields have especially high drug usage to handle the severe psychological stresses of their jobs. As for their physical health, the production process typically utilizes unnatural chemicals, acids, unsanitary water, and dangerous machinery that employees are exposed to. Every day. Employees who work in animal factories have an increased risk of developing a variety of deadly illnesses like cancer, bronchitis, or erosive ulcers. Unfortunately, a significant amount of these animal farms are in developing countries that have relaxed labor and safety laws for employees. Even those working in developed countries still suffer from animal production processes, despite safety measures. 

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Environmental Impacts 

If the animal cruelty and health dangers of producing animal products for fashion weren’t enough, fashion in its current process is destroying the planet. For one, the growing human population and increased consumption of livestock products haven’t left much space for the farming of luxury fashion pieces. This lack of space contributes to the inhumane conditions animals endure. Furthermore, livestock products use ⅓ of the world's freshwater sources and account for 75% of the developing world's carbon emissions. These issues also contribute to desertification which is expected to displace upwards of fifty million people over the next decade. If humans can survive that long in the first place. Factory farming releases hundreds of toxic chemicals and gases which are drastically speeding up global warming. Some of these toxic substances end up in water systems poisoning both the soil and drinking water.

 

It doesn’t have to be like this… 

With the given information, it may feel like the sky is falling and everyone is looking at each other unaware. It doesn’t have to be like this. A lot of the problems plaguing the fashion industry connected to animal products are slowly changing. Some problems can be improved by holding luxury brands (who can sure afford it) accountable for their marketing and products. When consumers demand transparency, brands simply can’t refuse. Social awareness and education about what’s really in our closet will also have a big impact. Additionally, creating jobs that help instead of harming the environment in developing countries will kill about seven birds with one stone and then some. Individual activism is important, but it’s big corporations and big brands which truly decide what our planet, what our population will look like in the next century. The only way to ensure we have a planet to live on and a population worth living with is to demand change from these corporations and brands in charge. If we don’t, who knows what precious wildlife will be next season's couture.