Gone are the days that testing on animals was the fashion industry norm.
Countless brands are making the conscious effort to cut ties with companies testing products on animals or using inhumane methods to collect fur.
In China – Australia’s biggest supplier of fur – animals are skinned alive, and are bred specifically for their hides.
Rabbits are used to test cosmetics regularly. With their eyes almost identical to ours, they become the guinea pigs to test chemicals that will later be used in creating your $10 stick of eyeliner.
Now, as part of a special fashion event next Wednesday, Greek Australian marketing business director of Nektaria Creative, Nektaria Georgys, is tackling the issue head first, and raising awareness for ethical and cruelty free brands.
It’s her personal love of animals and her connections with the fashion industry that have spurred her on, hoping to make a real difference in the industry and in homes around Australia.
“I was told by a number of people that an event to raise awareness for animal cruelty with the fashion industry was not possible, it was absolutely ridiculous,” she tells Neos Kosmos.
After being knocked back by a couple of companies telling her the two just don’t mix, she came across some companies who are making the effort to make their products more ethical, while still having to remain competitive in the industry.
Product savvy customers have have also helped to spur these companies on, when they’ve seen how their customers have been reacting to the products very favourably, and even getting new clientele out of the move.
“The purchasers are now declining,” Ms Georgys says about trading with companies still using inhumane methods.
“Over the last 12 months it has gone down by 21 per cent, which is good, the same can be said for puppy farms, which has dropped by 17 per cent.”
The sold out event, Protect our Animals, aims to raise awareness for the two issues, and hopefully raise much needed funds for the charities Oscars Law and Choose Cruelty Free.
A $28,000 Marchesa couture gown worn by Kim Kardashian will be auctioned off, as will a brand new Mercedes Benz and beautiful jewellery.
In Australia, many of the puppies in pet stores have come from puppy farms. These farms keep dogs in squalid conditions, forced to breed continuously until they are left infertile. In most cases these dogs are killed to make room for more.
Their offspring are what fill the pet stores around the country.
With the Christmas season fast approaching, Ms Georgys fears many unsuspecting families will be buying many of these puppies without knowing their true origin.
“When you’re purchasing a puppy this Christmas, instead of going to a puppy shop, you should go to a pound or a reputable breeder,” she says.
Ms Georgys knows awareness is the key to fighting this cruelty and hopes to make her event an annual thing.
She hopes she can include more brands that heed the call to introduce cruelty free products.
For more information on the event Protect our Animals visit http://nektaria.com/charity-event/, and to read more on Choose Cruelty Free visit http://www.choosecrueltyfree.org.au and for more information about Oscars Law and puppy farms, visit www.oscarslaw.org