Voluntary guidelines launched for vegan fashion

Simply labelling fashion as vegan because it contains no obvious animal products should not be allowed, according to new voluntary guidelines released by the British Retail Consortium (BRC).

The BRC suggests that only fashion items that contain an alternative to product or products that would otherwise have been derived from animals (e.g. leather or wool) should have a vegan label.

Fashion producers are also urged to check that the full list of products within an item, including adhesives, dyes and other chemicals, do not contain animal products. If they can't be sure that these ingredients are animal-free then they should be substituted for those which are, before a vegan label is applied.

In its guidelines the BRC has produced a flow-chart to help makers and brands with their labelling and a list of products from components to chemicals that are known to contain animal products.

"Retailers want to provide their customers with the assurance that any vegan product can be purchased with confidence. As the guidelines explain, classing a product as vegan is a very complex process with the need for retailers to ask more questions than ever before.

"It not only rules out using leather and wool, but also many glues, dyes, and traces of use in more hidden elements. This means retailers would need to go back to their suppliers and ask the right questions about the raw material ingredients in order verify them individually," the BRC said.

The full “Voluntary Guideline on Veganism in Fashion” can be downloaded here.