Starting February 4th in Los Angeles, fashion shows, meetings and panels of experts in the sphere of food and beauty
Los Angeles will be the host city for the first Vegan Fashion Week in the history of fashion. From February 1st through 4th, this California city will be the stage for a unique event that seeks to make this eating philosophy, which is gaining new converts every day, a sort of lifestyle, so cool that it has even conquered the runways.
“Cruelty-free is the new luxury”, reads the title-manifesto of these four days in the US. The goal: to stop the exploitation of animals, period. The concept is the brainchild of Emanuelle Riedna, a stylist and public relations expert as well as the founder of the creative agency LeFrenchLab.
“The event was conceived to give globally-aware brands and people a platform on which they can test results first-hand, that can be a source of inspiration and discovery – reads the presentation of the initiative. This is a tribute to animals and an ode to the end of animal exploitation in all its forms”.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony for Vegan Fashion Week will be held at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles: guests expected to attend the opening ceremony include the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner Robert Lempert, a great scholar of climate change and a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The California Market Center will be the venue for the fashion shows, as well as a series of meetings and panel discussions featuring experts in the fields of food and beauty as well as entrepreneurs, influencers and activists.
Closing night on February 4th will be dedicated to fundraising to support upcoming vegan fashion designers and to contribute to the rise of initiatives aimed at spreading the vegan “word”
Rumour has it that the event could soon move to other American cities, and work is already proceeding to bring Vegan Fashion Week to Europe.
That “veganism” is spreading exponentially is supported by data and especially by estimates for the year 2019, which includes the “Free-from-extreme” trend in the list of the 7 trends in food service around the world – as observed by TheFork, in collaboration with the Doxa market research firm, in the study “Eating out 2019”. This eating practice is based on the exclusive use of vegetal ingredients, a practice that will progressively influence restaurant policies to implement strategies of zero waste and increased sustainability. Furthermore, there are several examples of restaurants that are widening their range to include specific food requirements. With the growth of veganism – the study highlights – the entire restaurant industry (including fast food) is introducing more and more “free-of” options to their menus, such as free of lactose, meat or gluten. The list of exclusions is growing by the day. Beverages are marching more or less at the same pace, and “vegan wine pairing” is beginning to make its appearance. In the United States, “vegan” is already cool and in Canada, in the city of Calgary, the YouTube star “Cheap Lazy Vegan” has inaugurated the saVeg Café, the first Korean vegan restaurant. From food to cool, from cool to fashion: you can bet that we will soon be talking about new-generation fashion designers and new “fashion” movements dedicated to vegan. And vegetarians? They’re old-style! Here is the website for Vegan Fashion Week.
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translation by Olga Barmine
