Author, magazine entrepreneur, and vegan clothing expert, Sascha Camilli, talks bedazzling her wardrobe with vegan leather goods, to impressively convincing Helsinki fashion week to go vegan

• What made you want to create a vegan magazine and publish a vegan lifestyle book?

Not many people think about the fur and leather industry, everyone uses it, and there are many animal rights organisations and groups who have information and campaigns against fur, but not many people out there are discussing the issue.

With the magazine, I was transitioning to a vegan lifestyle and looking up information online to know how to make the change. I found lots of things about food, and everything was pretty and appealing, but there was nothing about fashion. I was working in fashion at the time, I was thinking, what will my wardrobe look like? Every vegan cookbook and recipe I saw was aesthetically pleasing, interesting and inspirational, and I wanted to create something like this to show people how to dress and style, who didn’t want to wear animals. I looked at lots of cookbooks and recipes but there was not a fashion book, and I saw the opportunity to write one.

• How long have you been vegan? And how long have you been shopping for vegan/sustainable clothing?

Seven and a half years now. I have to say it was much easier than I thought it would be. I was living in Italy at the time, and when I moved to London I was overwhelmed by the options. I was already blown away by how much stuff I found, but now there’s even more choice. It’s always going to be a transition, but it was so much easier than I thought.

• What do you think are the best vegan leather materials for people to wear? What are your favourite vegan leather materials/brands to wear?

All material innovation happening in the world is vegan, especially plant based vegan leathers are leading the way. There are so many amazing vegan leathers now, it’s a great time to swap. The most prominent one is Pinatex, it’s made from the leaves of pineapples and that is an actual bi product, it would have been discarded. It gives pineapple farmers addition stream of income, and mainstream brands are already starting to work with it. H&M have used it in their new conscious collection, Hugo Boss has made a range of shoes with it, and Chanel have made a hat from it. Apple leather is an amazing material, it’s made from dehydrated apple core, seeds and peel. It’s not toxic, and completely biodegradable. And I love cork, it’s nothing innovative, it’s not new, many countries have been using it for many years, Portugal and Spain for example have lots of little shops selling cork bags. Many designers are finding ways to make it look good. To make it you take it off the tree and it grows back, it’s biodegradable and such a wonderful material. I love wine leather, it’s also vegan and made from waste from the wine industry. H&M are using it in the next conscious collection, it’s on the Peta approved vegan list.

A lot of brands and designers who we celebrate through our fashion awards market their range as vegan. Although faux leather and wool free have been around for years, they are calling it vegan because it’s on trend.

• What are your favourite items you have found from a charity shop?

When I shop second hand, I only shop vegan and it’s just amazing how many things you can find at charity shops. I have found vegan designer brands and shoes from Matt and Nat, and their bags are around £100 but I paid £15. I found Stella McCartney shoes that were £700 but I paid £120. Instead of just tossing [clothes out] you can always donate to charity shops.

• How did you convince magazines, and also Helsinki fashion week to go vegan for a period of time?

We (Peta) saw that they were presenting themselves as the first sustainable fashion week in the world, and then research came out saying leather was the most polluting fabric in the industry. I wrote a letter to them and explained what the issue was with leather, how it is bad for animals, humans and the planet, and I was expecting them to have a conversation with me first, but instead they took it [leather] off straightaway. 95% of the attention they got was positive. It was amazing to see the innovation. An exhibition from a research centre in Finland who are making mushroom leather was also there. We will continue to spread awareness to events, we are coming into a period of time for people to realise the damages of the leather industries. We will get to a time where brands start working with sustainable materials.

• Why should people wear vegan leather? Many question the price and durability, so what would you say to convince them to try it out?

There are lots and lots of reasons. Leather is the biggest killer of animals, more than one billion are killed worldwide, these animals can be sheep, cows, pigs, goats, and an estimated two million dogs and cats are killed for their leather trade. This happens in China and although it is far away, some items have found their way into the UK. PETA investigated the dog skin trade and a [Chinese] worker said they would kill up to 200 dogs a day.

The animals get no pain relief, they are forced to endure a journey, or walk distances to slaughter. It’s a very bloody event. It’s not quick and pain free, it is extremely cruel. It’s [leather] also very harsh on the environment and uses massive amounts of energy and extremely toxic chemicals, that people die from. Toxic industries kills humans who live and work around tanneries, 90% of tannery workers die from the chemicals, many are also children. We know about meat and why it is problematic for the planet, leather isn’t any different. Also, I would say there has never been a better time to turn away from leather, fantastic leather alternatives are becoming more and more available, it’s a great time to switch.

• What vegan brands should people look out for?

People should check out Peta’s approved list, Alexandra K from Poland is good, we have sent bags from them to royals such as Meghan Markle. It was amazing and luxurious that looked like a designer high end bag. I love Luxtra, they exclusively work with fruit leathers, there’s a range of pineapple bags, mango leather, and apple leather. It’s just an incredible material, it feels very sturdy and durable, it’s made with 90 percent of the fruit. They get the mango leather from two guys in the Netherlands, they saw how much fruit was going to waste at their local markets. They dehydrate the mango to get a puree, and they use it to make the most amazing bags.