The PETA Fashion Awards celebrate the labels, style icons, and forward-thinking, animal-friendly designers that have made big statements for animals in 2023.
The PETA Fashion Awards celebrate the labels, style icons, and forward-thinking, animal-friendly designers that have made big statements for animals in 2023.
Most Iconic Movie Moment
Jacqueline Durran
Costume designer Jacqueline Durran’s humane fashion choices in the movie Barbie brought the intersection of glamor and responsibility to the mainstream. Ken makes a bold fashion statement by sporting vegan cowboy boots from Good Guys Don’t Wear Leather and a chic vegan fur coat, reflecting a modern and animal-friendly twist on his iconic character.
Best Vegan Fashion Moment
Kylie Jenner
When Kylie Jenner launched her new apparel brand, Khy, she celebrated with a star-studded party featuring a cruelty-free dress code: vegan leather. Hailey Bieber, Kendall Jenner, and other stars arrived in sleek animal-free leather pieces from Khy’s collection.
Coolest, Warmest Down-Free Fashion
Canada Goose
Canada Goose has introduced downright fabulous down-free fashion with its Carlyle Quilted Shirt Jacket insulated with innovative TENCEL Lyocell, a biodegradable fiber made from wood pulp.
Best Luxury Product
Gucci
The vegan version of Gucci’s iconic Horsebit 1955 bag is made with Demetra, the brand’s own animal-free leather—a blend of viscose, wood pulp, and corn-based plastics. Billie Eilish is a fan, and so are we!
Overall Most Vegan-Friendly Company
Gap
Gap is making it easy to find animal-free items, with statement pieces in its Vegan-Leather Shop, luxurious sheep-friendly cashmere in its CashSoft Shop, and numerous down-free options.
Most Forward-Thinking Brand
von Holzhausen
In 2023, vegan brand von Holzhausen launched Liquidplant, the world’s first 100% plant-based high performance topcoat meant to replace the plastic top coating on car interiors, canvas tote bags, and even cereal boxes. The brand’s products also feature sustainable animal-free leathers made from bamboo and agricultural waste.
Most Innovative Partnership
Balenciaga and GOZEN
Biomaterials startup GOZEN and luxury brand Balenciaga launched LUNAFORM at Paris Fashion Week 2023. This innovative material is produced with microorganisms and is both animal- and plastic-free. Balenciaga used the luxe textile for its statement Maxi Bathrobe Coat, and we predict we’ll see it in many more designs to come.
Best Celeb-Backed Brand
LØCI
Actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio backs vegan shoe brand LØCI, which uses recycled ocean plastic, natural cork, and bamboo-based insoles for its fashion-forward sneaker styles.
Leader in Fashion Award
VF Corporation
VF Corporation—owner of brands such as The North Face, Vans, and Dickies—confirmed that it would no longer use cashmere in any of its products after hearing from PETA about how goats suffer in the cashmere industry.
Best Wool-Free Staple
Apparis
Vegan brand Apparis makes on-trend pieces with animals in mind, like the Alma Faux Wool Plaid Coat—because there’s nothing cool about the cruel and bloody wool industry.
Best Vegan Suede Staple
Max Mara
Max Mara’s Vegan Suede Belted Jacket exudes quiet luxury and is made without skin torn from the undersides of lambs, goats, pigs, calves, or deer.
Hottest Vegan Leather Product
Versace
Versace’s eye-catching Croc-Lacquered Cloquet Jacket is a piece made from recycled polyester—not from the skin of crocodiles, who are doting parents and intelligent communicators.
Best Vegan Exotic-Skin Staple
Alice + Olivia
Alice + Olivia’s chic Ellis Vegan Leather Sleeveless Minidress was at the top of every fashionista’s must-have list this year. The brand’s crocodile-friendly style follows a ban on fur after it heard from thousands of PETA supporters.
Best Vegan Feathers
VASEGHIA
The super-realistic vegan feathers featured in VASEGHIA’s spring/summer 2023 ready-to-wear collection are soft and luxurious, and they aren’t obtained by violently plucking and killing living, feeling individuals.
Best Vegan Heel
Stella McCartney
Stella McCartney’s animal-friendly styles are always showstopping, including the Ryder Knee-High Stiletto Boots. These heels are made from the brand’s Alter Mat vegan leather and VEGEA, a biobased material made from grape waste.
Best Vegan Sneaker
MoEa
MoEa’s Gen 1 – All In sneaker features a blend of vegan leathers made from pineapple, cactus, corn, apples, and grapes. This “PETA-Approved Vegan” brand is also developing soles made with MIRUM, a completely plastic- and animal-free material.
Most Innovative Shoe
BLUEVIEW
BLUEVIEW launched the world’s first biodegradable shoe, made with a blend of breathable and durable organic fibers and Soleic, a biomaterial made from plants and algae.
Best Men’s Fashion
Abercrombie & Fitch
This popular lifestyle brand has “vegan” labels for animal-free leather, suede, and shearling in its online shop, including the bestselling Vegan Leather Zip Trucker Jacket.
Villain of the Year
H&M
H&M claims to care about animal welfare, yet the company stuffs its jackets with feathers ripped from birds’ bodies after they’ve been violently killed. The fashion retailer can spare ducks and geese a lifetime of suffering and a violent death by ending its use of deceptively labeled “responsible” down in favor of the many warm and humane vegan materials available.
Greenwasher of the Year
Reformation
Reformation markets itself as a sustainable company that obtains wool from “happy” sheep, but no amount of fluff can hide that the wool industry is cruel and bloody. Producing animal-derived materials is environmentally destructive and unsustainable.
When animals are used for their skin, fur, wool, or feathers, they’re treated as commodities, but each of these living, feeling individuals is someone—not something—who experiences joy, fear, loneliness, and pain.
Thanks to brands such as our compassionate award winners, the fashion industry is changing and we’re moving towards a kinder, more sustainable future without animal-derived products.
To learn more about how to find animal-free fashion, check out our guide: