The Vegan Scene in the Food & Fashion Industries
Two experts on fashion and food share their insights into the vegan scene in these two important industries
Los Angeles, July 7th, 2024 — What’s the state of the vegan scene when it comes to food and fashion? It’s an important question because our ability to transition to a plant-based culture in these two key arenas could help us avoid the worst outcomes of climate change, habitat destruction, wildlife extinction, human world hunger and lifestyle diseases. UnchainedTV’s Jane Velez Mitchell talked to two plant-based leaders in these sectors. Carolyn Scott-Hamilton is an author, founder and host of the Healthy Voyager, a hit vegan cooking show streaming on UnchainedTV. Jonathan Ohayon is the author of a brand-new book about the fashion industry and a leader in vegan fashion. You can watch this fascinating conversation here:
The State of the Vegan Scene in Fashion
Jonathan Ohayon is a passionate entrepreneur who has made it his mission to get designers and manufacturers of clothing, footwear and accessories to stop inflicting violence on animals in the name of fashion. Growing up in Paris, Jonathan was deeply influenced by his family’s rich heritage in the French fashion industry. In 2015, he co-founded Arsayo alongside his father and brother. Arsayo crafts vegan and ethically made backpacks and accessories, utilizing innovative, sustainable alternatives to animal leather, like cork. The company garnered awards from the prestigious Lepine contest and the French Ministry of Interior. Ohayon also frequently donates his time and his gourmet cooking skills to vegan causes in Los Angeles, where he now lives. In 2019, he founded the F.A.K.E movement, which aims to elevate vegan fashion by creating pop-up events in iconic cities. This is what he said about his organization:
“I created the F.A.K.E movement, which stands for Fashion for Animal Kingdom and Environments, out of necessity, because I couldn’t find places where I could showcase the backpack that we created. That’s how everything started. I created ethical fashion pop-ups. Then we had a vegan fashion museum. We had fashion shows all over the world, in Tel Aviv, Los Angeles, and Paris. That’s how I realized that the biggest gap in the fashion industry was education.”
His Must-Read Book Reveals Fashion’s Cruel Secrets
According to Ohayon, the fashion industry’s biggest problem is the cruelty ingrained in its processes and products. He decided to reveal what really goes into making leather, cashmere, fur and silk by writing a book titled The Fashion Industry Doesn’t Want You To Read This Book. He says this about it:
“The key thing is education. Understanding how horrible the leather, wool, and silk industries are… I realized I had to write this book. I did it out of necessity. I have never seen myself as an author. It’s just that we need a book like this. So that’s why I did it.”
“We need to shift the mindset and stop putting leather on a pedestal. Leather is horrible and we need alternatives. You can wear amazing shoes made of organic cotton or organic hemp.” — Jonathan Ohayon, vegan entrepreneur
The State of the Vegan Scene in Food
Carolyn Scott-Hamilton is a respected figure in the world of healthy lifestyle, plant-based cooking and nutrition. With a highly acclaimed vegan cookbook and travel show to her credit, Carolyn has roamed the world proving the plant-based movement is a global phenomenon. The Healthy Voyager show was born in 2005 as an entertaining resource for people who find traveling difficult due to dietary restrictions. It’s also aimed at those who want to keep healthy, green and fit while away from home. This is how she sees the state of the vegan scene in food:
“I’ve been vegan for 26 years now and I am excited at how far we’ve come. When I started, people would look at me and say, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s going to be so hard.’ No one had heard of it. It was just kind of starting grassroots. Now, I hear the words ‘vegan’ and ‘plant-based’ everywhere around the world. I think we’re doing really well. We still have quite a ways to go but I’ve seen it go leaps and bounds ahead further than I ever expected.”
Carolyn Scott-Hamilton’s Vegan Ceviche Recipe
She’s Veganized Traditional Dishes in 140 Countries
This is what Scott-Hamilton has to say about people who use the excuse of tradition to refuse to even try the vegan alternatives to their favorite dishes:
“I think as time trudges on, we’re going to see the excuse of tradition go by the wayside because I’ve veganized pretty much everything that I grew up with, things that I loved, and in all the countries that I’ve been to. I’ve been to 140 countries now, and I have been able to enjoy their traditional foods in a vegan way. So, that excuse I think is going to die off.”
“We’re just programmed to believe that the way things have always been is as they should be, but if that were the case, we’d still be living in caves.” — Carolyn Scott-Hamilton, The Healthy Voyager
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