New documentary SLAY examines the fashion industry’s use of animals. We speak to the film’s director, Rebecca Cappelli, about her inspiration for this film and what she hopes it will achieve.
Traditionally, September is the month when the fashion industry shows off its forthcoming collections. Historically, animal skins, fur and wool have featured heavily in the exclusive shows that become the talk of the town in London, New York, Milan and Paris. This year looked different though, as the gossip coming off the back of the champagne, catwalks and canapes turned to pinatex, cork, mycelium and eucalyptus wood pulp. These are just some of the many natural alternatives that are not just replacing animals on the production lines of the famous fashion houses but could also help clean up the industry’s poor record on sustainability and garment worker protection.
The spark for all of this, may be the release of a new documentary film called SLAY, which for the first time examines the impact of the fashion industry’s use – and abuse – of farmed and free animals.
The Vegan Society were lucky enough to attend the premieres of the film’s release in both London and Paris earlier this month, and excited by its potential to transform an entire industry, we interviewed the film’s director, Rebecca Cappelli, asking her what her inspiration for the film was and what she hopes it will ultimately achieve. You can read the full interview below.
What was your inspiration for creating the film SLAY?
The True Cost did a great job of highlighting the harms of the fast fashion industry. The documentary kick-started a lot of positive work and conversations around the treatment of workers and the impact fashion has on the planet. I found there was a blind spot with animals becoming simply invisible and ignored – SLAY aims to change that by showing the interwoven harms of the skin industries on both people and the planet.
Can you give us a brief overview of the fashion industry and how it exploits animals?
Fashion is a massive industry that is worth trillions of dollars and employs millions of people. It is also very powerful in the media and our culture at large. Fashion skins 2.5 billion animals every year and there are many species that fall victim to the industry, including kangaroos, foxes, mink, lynx, crocodiles, ostriches, cows, sheep and farmed animals. SLAY focuses on fur, leather and wool, as these are mostly used globally.
The exploitation of non-human animals varies according to the industry. Overall, they are bred for the purpose of being exploited and eventually slaughtered – they suffer immensely.
The environmental impact of the fashion industry and its workers' rights have been highlighted in the film – can you elaborate more on this?
SLAY covers the environmental cost of leather, from deforestation and biodiversity loss in Brazil to water pollution in India. Also, the devastating effects on workers’ health and local communities, including the plight of immigrant workers in Italian tanneries who are behind the prestigious label Made in Italy.
SLAY endorses the Collective Fashion Justice concept of a ‘total ethics fashion system’, one which values the life of all non-human animals, humans and the planet. The wellbeing of all three are interconnected and cannot be separated.
What was one of the most surprising revelations during filmmaking?
SLAY is an unscripted documentary, which is very important as it did not limit the scope and allowed more authentic storytelling.
One shocking realisation is that at each location we visited we found suffering and destruction in plain sight. In Australia for example, we covered the harm of the wool industry, and whilst I had complete trust in the integrity of the activists we worked with, I was sceptical that we would find evidence during our first visit. I thought we would need to return several times. In reality, suffering is happening right there just over the fence, and that will always stay with me.
The film includes footage from farms in Australia, China, India, US, Brazil, Italy and France – what is the UK’s relationship with the farms and wider industry?
We need to understand how interconnected and global the fashion industry is and how little traceability and transparency really exists.
There are no guarantees the Brazilian leather skins do not come from deforested land. 80% of their leather is exported all over the world including the UK. Global Witness, who features in the film, has discovered major household banks in the UK sending billions to the world’s largest meat and leather producers including JBS. Consumers may not know that what they wear and where they keep their money contributes to land grabbing, deforestation and biodiversity loss in Brazil.
Many international brands source leather from India, which is a major producer of wet blue skins (hides processed with a dangerous chemical called chromium sulfate).
Fur items sold in the UK can be sourced from anywhere in the world. European fur farms, Chinese fur farms and trapping in the US, which we know are harmful to non-human animals. Similarly, wool and even non-mulesed wool is responsible for a lot of suffering.
Leather can often be thought of as a residual product of the meat industry – from your research how accurate is this?
Leather is at best a co-product of the meat industry. Meat and leather are two sides of the same coin. The leather industry is worth several hundreds of billions of dollars, and it is not a waste-diverting charity as stated by Joshua Katcher the author of Fashion Animals.
In the case of calves and lambs, highly sought after by luxury fashion brands, the skin can represent most of the value of the non-human animal. The meat would then become the by-product of the leather.
At a time when thousands of scientists, the IPCC and many more are urging us to move towards a plant-based diet for our survival on this planet, the fashion industry must accelerate the adoption of innovative, sustainable animal-free materials too. There is enough innovation in the space to move away from leather entirely.
Can you describe your relationship with fashion. Have you always understood the darker side or was there something that triggered change in your buying behaviour?
I wouldn’t say I was a hardcore fashionista, but I always liked fashion and I was a compulsive buyer at a point in my life, buying six pairs of luxury shoes at a private sale, for instance. I would wear a lot of animal leather, fur, wool and cashmere. It had never occurred to me that my behaviour was harming anyone as animals disappear into fashion objects in a very disturbing way. It was mindless and I wished I had known sooner. I made SLAY for people like my past self, who would care if only they knew.
My dog, rescued from dog meat and cheap fur in China, opened me up to animal individuality, and I owe my awakening and compassion to him.
Where can the fashion industry improve from an ethical standpoint – are there brands you’re aware of that are trailblazing in cruelty-free fashion?
There are many people doing wonderful work to make fashion more ethical and responsible for people and the planet. SLAY supports Collective Fashion Justice’s work and their engagement with brands to ensure we make progress on all fronts together. Sustainability and ethics are one, and this is the only way forward.
While not one person is perfect, no brand is perfect either and it shouldn’t keep us from celebrating progress. Some of the big brands doing great work include Pangaia, Stella McCartney (with more work to do on the wool front) and many more. The film features the work of faux fur artisan Ecopel, Save the Duck and Bhava.
What do you hope that the film achieves once released?
We hope three things: non-human animals become part of the ethical and sustainable fashion conversation, SLAY can accelerate the adoption of sustainable animal-free materials and that ultimately we have a cultural shift away from the idea that skins are a material.
What can viewers expect to take away from the film?
SLAY aims to empower people to defend the defenceless. Viewers are taken on a journey in several countries, which provides data and information about the interwoven harms of the skin trade on the planet, people and non-human animals.
The documentary uses storytelling to help people make a connection with individual non-human animals, which should provoke an emotional and intellectual response to take action for good.
We chose WaterBear as a distribution partner to show SLAY on a platform that was also devoted to taking action and solving the key challenges facing our planet. We have a number of campaigns we support on slay.film and on WaterBear so people can take action right after viewing the film.
We urge every EU citizen to sign the ECI from Eurogroup for Animals to ban fur farming and fur sale in Europe. https://www.eurogroupforanimals.org/fur-free-europe
Please visit the waterbear website to watch the full film. . As we strive towards a world where no animals are exploited, the fashion industry plays a huge role in that, and films such as SLAY are helping to expose the harm within this market. With education around the various injustices in the supply chain and continued innovation into alternatives, the tide can turn in the fashion industry towards a kinder and more compassionate future. For more insight into the vegan fashion industry, you may also be interested in reading our 2021 The Rise of Vegan Fashion report.
NB The film is rated PG, though viewer discretion is advised.
The views expressed by our bloggers are not necessarily the views of The Vegan Society.
