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Following a series of undercover investigations exposing cruelty to animals used for their skins in the fashion industry, PETA is taking the conversation to a number of fashion universities across the UK.
The vegan charity is hosting a series of informative lectures that will offer an in-depth look at the way animals live and die for fashion, and a first look at some sustainable, cruelty-free materials that are on their way to replacing animal skins in the industry.
Vegan fashion expert
Holding the lectures is PETA’s European Media and Projects Coordinator Sascha Camilli, who has worked on numerous successful campaigns such as persuading Helsinki Fashion Week to ban all leather from their catwalks starting with the 2019 event.
Camilli is also the founder and editor of the world’s first digital vegan fashion magazine Vilda, a frequent speaker at vegan festivals and an author whose first book, a vegan fashion and lifestyle guide, is coming out in the summer of 2019.
PETA’s investigation ofthe mohair industry in South Africa
Undercover investigations
In her lectures, Camilli will discuss some of the recent high-impact undercover exposes launched by PETA and its international affiliates, including investigations into the leather industry in Bangladesh, the wool industry in Britain and into the mohair industry in South Africa, to name a few.
She will also point out the environmental damage of animal skins – from leather being deemed the most polluting material by the 2017 Pulse of Fashion Industry Report to the little-known environmental harm of wool.
Vegan fashion innovation
But it’s not all doom and gloom, as Camilli will also highlight some of the most ground-breaking materials replacing animal skins in fashion, such as pineapple-leaf leather Pinatex, apple leather and wine leather, as well as innovative new wool alternative Woocoa created by a group of forward-thinking university students from Colombia, and lab-grown leather being developed by material innovation company Modern Meadow.
The first of the planned lectures took place at Coventry University on November 27, and the next one is planned for December 3 at Cardiff Metropolitan University.
Any Universities wishing to host Camilli are requested to get in touch with PETA UK
