Materials from Animals

Leather and wool: the big two

Start with leather, the one you probably see most. Most leather comes from cows, and most of the time it's a by-product — or more precisely a co-product — of the meat and dairy industries. The animal was raised mainly for beef or milk, and the hide is sold on to tanneries rather than thrown away. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization tracks hides and skins as part of the global livestock trade for exactly this reason.

But 'mostly a by-product' isn't 'always'. Exotic leathers — crocodile, snake, ostrich — often come from animals farmed primarily for their skins. Same word on the label, very different story behind it.

Wool works completely differently: the animal stays alive. Sheep are sheared, usually once a year, and the fleece grows back — a bit like a very serious haircut. Australia is one of the world's biggest wool producers — the biggest for the fine merino wool used in clothing — and industry figures put it at roughly a quarter of global supply. Shearing doesn't have to hurt the sheep, though how carefully it's done varies a lot from farm to farm. That's a story for a later lesson.

Silk and down: softer than they sound

Silk begins with a caterpillar. The silkworm spins its cocoon from a single continuous thread that can run for hundreds of metres. And here's the part that surprises almost everyone: in conventional silk production, the cocoons are boiled or steamed with the pupa still inside. Why? Because if the moth were allowed to emerge, it would chew through the cocoon and snap that one long thread into short pieces. It takes thousands of cocoons to make a single kilogram of raw silk, and China and India together produce the vast majority of the world's supply. There is an alternative — 'peace silk', also called Ahimsa silk — where the moth emerges first, but the fibres come out shorter and the fabric costs more.

Down is the soft under-layer of feathers that keeps ducks and geese warm, which is exactly why it fills winter jackets and duvets. Most down is collected after birds have been processed for meat, making it another co-product. But investigations have documented live-plucking on some farms, which is why the Responsible Down Standard — run by the nonprofit Textile Exchange — bans live-plucking and force-feeding in certified supply chains.

Cashmere and fur: where it gets complicated

Cashmere is the downy winter under-layer of certain goats, combed or sheared out in spring, mostly in China and Mongolia. Each goat produces so little usable fibre that it can take the annual harvest from around four goats to make one jumper. When cashmere got cheap in the 2000s and demand soared, herders responded the way you'd expect: with a lot more goats. The trouble is that goats graze harshly — they pull plants up by the roots — and UN-backed environmental assessments have found that a majority of Mongolia's grasslands now show degradation, with overgrazing a major driver.

Fur is the odd one out on this list: mink, foxes and raccoon dogs on fur farms are raised for one thing only — their coats. That's a big part of why it's the most heavily restricted material in fashion. The UK passed a law banning fur farming back in 2000, more than twenty European countries have since banned it or are phasing it out (the Fur Free Alliance keeps a running list), and in 2021 Israel became the first country to ban fur sales almost entirely. Major fashion houses, including Gucci and Prada, have dropped fur too.

Become a label detective

Here's the practical bit: every garment has a fibre content label sewn inside, and in most countries — the UAE included — listing the materials is a legal requirement. Flip the tag and you'll see percentages: '100% cotton' means no animal materials; '70% wool, 30% polyamide' means sheep were involved.

A few decoding tips. 'Merino' and 'lambswool' are both wool. 'Genuine leather' means real animal hide. 'Satin' is a weave, not a fibre — satin is often polyester, while real silk will actually say silk. Down jackets should say 'down' or 'feather'; 'polyfill' or 'wadding: 100% polyester' means synthetic. Logos like RDS (down) or RWS (wool) mean the brand signed up to welfare standards.

Even in Dubai, where you'll never need a down jacket outdoors, the malls are full of them for ski trips and travel — the label is the only way to know what's inside.

So tonight, pick five items from your wardrobe and play detective. If a label leaves you guessing, the Rewoven app lets you scan it and see the brand's Animal Welfare grade alongside its Environmental, Labor and Transparency scores. Knowing what you're wearing is step one — every later lesson builds on it.