What being a vegan clothing brand means to us at No Nasties
We are proud to be one of India's only vegan clothing brands - PETA-certified! But what does that entail? What do we do different to other clothing brands? And why...
Silky smooth? Soft as fur? Light as a feather? Nope, nah, nuh-uh. We’re having none of that.
Think about it. How mainstream these phrases are, reflect how normalised animal cruelty has become in the world even today. Some of us, though, have to raise our hands and say we won’t go down that road. It’s been like that at No Nasties from the start. Organic. Fairtrade. Vegan. Because we care.
Vegan Clothes - Because Animals don’t have to suffer for us to look or feel good
When we think vegan, our minds immediately go to food and other things we consume. But how prevalent animal-cruelty is in the fashion industry is, to put it lightly, terrible.
We’re all conscious people, yeah? This is why we needn’t get into gory details and images of the things animals have to go through for our sake. We’ve seen more than our share of those to know that it just isn’t the done thing. It’s nasty.
Our values and principles rest on one simple desire. To make a positive difference to the planet and everyone on it. EVERYONE. We believe there simply isn’t good enough reason any more to not treat animals ethically. They deserve our kindness and compassion too.
Cruelty comes in many forms
Whether it’s hurting, killing, ill-treating or testing; cruelty and abuse come in many forms. The end results in our clothing are leather, wool, silk, fur, shell, bones, ivory or various other animal-origin materials. We’re not okay with that. We just don’t believe any of this can be achieved ethically.
So we chose cotton. And we stuck to it. The No Nasties in our clothes extend to ZERO animal-origin products. Yes, we’re PETA-certified too. Animal testing? Nope. Buttons? Coconut shell. Sweaters? Knitted, Organic, Fairtrade cotton. Scarves? Same. We mean it when we say No Nasties.
Vegan clothes is all about making more mindful choices
A few years ago, the discussion around being vegan in clothing and fashion made us deeply consider if everything in our supply chain was clean and cruelty-free. Our single material, single farm, single factory supply chain convincingly assured us that we were truly a vegan brand in all respects, but we could certainly offer more alternatives to our customers using ethical substitutes to animal-origin products.
Going the extra mile on matters like these is the No Nasties way. Always. We started with the usual suspect - wool. No, of course, we don’t use any. But others do. And we wanted to find an alternative - especially one that’s more suitable for higher Indian temperatures. So we came up with warm, really soft, sweater-knits and scarves that are made using a special zero-waste process at our Fairtrade factory in Noida, India.
And then onto usual suspect #2 - buttons. Bone and shell buttons are quite common and we don’t even realise it. Nah, we never used those either. But we switched from plastic buttons to coconut shell buttons all across (by the way, our packaging is ZERO plastic, too! - yeah, we really don’t like plastic).
We even took care of the little things. We decided to not put any leather trims on any of our bags; we used canvas instead. And looked for more substitutes. For instance, there were certain designs that would have benefited from a lustrous appearance (akin to silk) - so we made them with sateen fabric (cotton, but with a satin weave structure). That’s how we do it. No cruelty, no abuse, no nasties. Just playing our part in making better clothing. For you. For the planet. And for animals as well.
The gift of organic cotton from India for a vegan clothing brand
But if we only use cotton, why are we even talking about being vegan? Good question. Most importantly, it’s a guiding principle and part of our value system, above all else. Further, if we take a closer look, animal-origin products in clothing are all around us. Sometimes even in wardrobes of those leading largely vegan lifestyles. Something about that doesn’t feel right. So having this conversation is important. We want more people to ask “what’s vegan about clothing?”. If we’re making conscious choices anyway by going organic, why not venture a little beyond?
And why do we say cotton is a gift? Because it’s SO versatile and can be used to replace SO much animal-origin apparel. Here’s something to consider: just within our small business, we use more than 10(!) different kinds of organic cotton fabrics of varying texture, thickness and character. Poplin, cambric, single jersey, slub jersey, muslin, knit, canvas and so much more.
Like we said, we make scarves, sweaters, bags, jackets - all out of organic cotton. There’s just so much more possible and left to explore with this material. And the good thing is we grow so much of it right here in India! We’re the world’s leading producer of organic cotton.
Go vegan with your clothing
In our fashion choices, the vegan angle is certainly something to think about. Even if it means just taking a step back and considering the origins of everything that goes into making our clothes.
Together, we can achieve a lot of sustainability goals simply by making more mindful choices. The same goes for being vegan in our fashion decisions too. Emma Watson put it quite beautifully: “As consumers we have so much power to change the world by just being careful in what we buy.”
We couldn’t have said it better. And y’know, this goes beyond cotton too. It’s worth looking around to see the rich bouquet of alternative materials available to us today. So in this day and age, we REALLY don’t think killing and animal-abuse is necessary for the sake of our appearance. Remember, every purchase is a vote.
