MUMBAI, 24th NOVEMBER, 2023 (GPN): Designers and retailers across India are rushing to meet the soaring demand for vegan fashion, and this World Vegan Month (November), People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India is announcing the winners of its 2023 Vegan Fashion Awards. Please find the list of winners below.

• Best Vegan Fashion Moment: The Central Leather Research Institute has developed the technology to make vegan leather products using mango pulp.

• Best Vegan Style Icon: Fashionable vegan, Bollywood star Wamiqa Gabbi wins this award for being leather-free and a vocal advocate for animals.

• Best Vegan Sneakers: Gorilla Lifestyle has created a fashion identity that is rooted in protecting animals’ lives.

• Best Vegan Kids’ Shoes: Cricketer Hardik Pandya has backed Aretto’s innovative leather-free designs that are adjustable and can expand up to three sizes, accommodating the growth of the child wearing them.

• Best Vegan Sarees: Engineer Gaurav Anand left a corporate career to start Swachhata Pukare Foundation, which creates handloom silk-free sarees from fibre extracted from water hyacinths.

• Best Vegan Personal Care: Deepika Padukone’s 82°E is on a mission to make self-care cruelty-free, joyful, and effective.

• Best Vegan Bags: Miraggio collaborated with Bollywood star Shanaya Kapoor to launch a line of leather-free, playful Valentine-themed bags that we love.

• Best Vegan Women’s Shoes: Founded by Aradhana and Dhanraj Minawala, The CAI Store offers trendy, comfortable vegan shoes at affordable prices.

• Best Vegan Men’s Shoes: Lusso Lifestyle, a men’s luxury vegan footwear brand founded by Bhaveen Doshi, uses top-of-the-line vegan microfibres for its products.

• Best Innovation in Textiles: The National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology has developed vegan leather from agricultural waste, including mango and pineapple peels, cactus, rice straw and vetiver grass.

• Best Vegan Accessories: Anita Dongre’s newest line of accessories is inspired by her love for animals and made using eco-friendly plant-based leather MIRUM®.

• Best Vegan Leather: Banofi creates beautiful, versatile vegan leather from banana crop waste and was awarded the Hult Prize, presented by celebrity designer Stella McCartney.

“From beautiful plant leather to luxurious animal-free personal care products, this year’s winners are proving that it’s easier and more fashionable than ever to live vegan,” says PETA India Manager of Fashion, Media and Celebrity Projects Monica Chopra. “PETA India is celebrating compassion-focused designers and innovators who are making India and the world a kinder, greener place.”

PETA entities have released numerous videos revealing that workers hit, kick, and mutilate sheep for their wool during shearing; leave goats with bloody, gaping wounds at mohair and cashmere operations; slit the throats of cows and buffaloes for leather; ram metal rods down conscious crocodiles’ spines in the exotic-skins industry; suffocate, electrocute, and bludgeon animals to death on fur farms; and boil silkworms alive to produce silk. PETA India’s investigation into Mumbai’s Deonar slaughterhouse found appalling cruelty to animals for leather.

PETA India also notes that turning animal skin into garments requires massive amounts of energy and dangerous chemicals that damage the environment. A Pulse of the Fashion Industry report revealed that leather, silk, and wool are among the most polluting materials in fashion.

PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETAIndia.com or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.