Interiors: Here are the high street brands winning a PETA Innovation Award for venturing into vegan homeware
Let’s face it – if we saw where our meat comes from, most of us would be appalled. While some choose to the look the other way, others have turned to veganism and the stars of the US Open showed us this week that it’s a lifestyle that’s just as much about health as it is about ethics – Novak Djokovic has opened a vegan restaurant in Monaco and the Williams sisters are still at the top of their tennis game as vegans. For many, this is modernity. So can a vegan lifestyle start at home?
“From food to fashion and now home furnishings, people are rejecting cruelty to animals,” says Elisa Allen, director of Peta UK, the animal rights organisation. Two years ago, it launched the Vegan Homeware Awards to showcase good-looking mainstream products that buyers can trust aren’t derived from animals (see peta.org.uk for the full 2017 and 2018 winners).
Companies are innovating, not with mere substitute materials but with specialist, technical alternatives, just as Hugo Boss is making fabulous shoes from pineapple leather. “We are delighted to honour the forward-thinking companies that are meeting the booming demand for vegan homes with fashionable and functional pieces,” Allen says.
The White Company won Best Silk Free Sheets
And what the campaigning group has kickstarted, the design world is taking up – this year, the Vegan Design show made it into the smorgasbord of global design that is Milan Design Week, presenting the work of Erez Nevi Pana from Israel. Nevi Pana researches new materials, including vegan glue, and creates furniture with plant substances and minerals. He won this year’s Peta Innovation Award.
If Nevi Pana’s furniture looks out of the ordinary, the rollcall of other Peta winners are high-street names. So, if a soft leather sofa is a no-no, what’s the alternative? The 2018 Best Sofa award went to Anthropologie for its durable “performance wool” Angelina sofa that looks super-smart and comes in five delicious colours.
This year, the Vegan Design show made it into the smorgasbord of global design that is Milan Design Week
Then, for those who feel creeped out by the ever-popular real sheepskin rug, Ikea has a selection of guilt-free versions – its Fardrup rug won Best Faux-Sheepskin Rug 2018, as did its Tejn rug last year.
Erez Devi Pana's Dead Sea 8 Months stool
What about wool? Zara Home picked up Best Wool-Free Blanket for its crocheted Plain Weave Multicoloured Blanket. And, for the bedroom, The White Company’s Cambourne Bed Linen Collection, made from smooth 400-thread-count Egyptian cotton, took home the Best Silk-Free Sheets award. Best Feather-Free Cushion went to Weaver Green for its Nomad Taurus Cushion made from the yarn of recycled plastic bottles, which must get double marks for being vegan and recycled.
Weaver Green’s textiles (rugs, blankets, bags etc) look and feel like wool, but are machine washable and can be used outdoors. Moths won’t eat them, and dust mites won’t live in them.
Globalisation makes the whole business of the supply chain incredibly difficult to police and others argue that animal-free isn’t always best for the environment (cotton production uses up a lot of water, for example).
But whatever our standpoints, we certainly wouldn’t want our products to be labelled “made with cruelty”. So if the thought of geese being plucked alive for the feathers in your pillow gives you nightmares, perhaps it’s time to make a change?