At Vegan Fashion Repository, we keep our ears firmly to the ground for every essential development in the vegan and sustainable fashion industry, and celebrate when another milestone is reached.
Here’s a brief summary of the highlights from February 2025:
Fur farming is now officially banned in Norway. The Fur Farming Prohibition Act (FFPA), passed by the Norwegian Parliament back on 13 June 2019, has now closed over 200 fur farms, saving around 700,000 minks and 140,000 foxes annually. Norway joins the UK and the Netherlands in banning fur farming—a significant milestone, as the country was one of the world’s largest fur producers in the 1950s. Credit goes to decades of advocacy by animal rights groups, including the Norwegian Society for the Protection of Animals and international organisations like PETA. To mitigate economic impacts, the Norwegian government introduced a compensation plan of over 500 million Norwegian kroner (approximately $50 million USD) to help former fur farmers transition to new livelihoods. Prince Ea
Balmain and Moroccan designers from Label Oued collective have collaborated on a collection to be showcased at Vegan Fashion Week 2025 in March. This collection is said to blend cultures, ethics, and—ultimately—design with eco-conscious principles, setting a groundbreaking precedent in eco-couture. It comes at a pivotal time when luxury is facing an unprecedented crisis and searching for new ways to resonate with modern consumers. Vegan Fashion Week
As the scale and complexity of the footwear recycling issue continue to grow globally— with over 90% of the 23.8 billion pairs produced annually containing more than 60 different components per pair, from fabric and rubber to adhesives—Fashion for Good , in partnership with 14 leading footwear brands (including Adidas, Deichmann, Dr. Martens, Deckers, Puma, and Tommy Hilfiger), has launched the ‘Closing the Footwear Loop’ initiative to tackle the challenges of circularity in the footwear industry. The Industry Fashion
In other collaboration news, Daisy Harvey has launched Loom, an upcycling app that connects customers with a community of upcycling designers. With an impressive advisory team—including Panicko ( Pan) Philippou, Georgie Hyatt and Stuart Trevor, this initiative has the potential to take upcycling mainstream. The Industry Fashion, Fashion For Good
In cotton-related news, Mango has partnered with Materra, a regenerative cotton and tech company that designs and implements agricultural programmes to help fashion brands build climate-resilient, traceable, and equitable supply chains. Meanwhile, MYGroup, a UK waste management company, has acquired land in Sri Lanka to cultivate regenerative cotton. This initiative aims to reintroduce cotton farming to the country for the first time since the 1970s while nurturing local craftsmanship and traditional techniques. Materra, Just Style
Policy Updates
On 05 February 2025 the Fédération de la Mode Circulaire, presented the first European Manifesto for Circular Fashion in Brussels, outlining a strategic roadmap to strengthen Europe’s textile industry through circularity with special focus on key areas such as VAT incentives, harmonised Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), consumer transparency, and strengthened collection, sorting, and recycling systems. The circular fashion market alone is projected to reach €50 billion by 2030. Federation Mode Circulaire
In related news, on 25 February 2025, as part of the revision to the EU Waste Framework Directive, the EU Council and Parliament reached a provisional agreement on new measures to prevent and reduce waste from food and textiles across the EU. The agreement introduces mandatory EPR schemes for producers making textiles available in an EU country—including clothing, accessories, footwear, blankets, bed linen, kitchen linen, curtains, and hats. This also includes e-commerce and will result in fees to cover the costs of garment collection, sorting, and recycling. The legislation also addresses ultra-fast fashion and fast fashion practices.. European Parliament Official Press Release
In regional news, the French parliament has voted to ban the manufacture, importation, and sale of textile products containing PFAS (per– and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as ‘forever chemicals’), starting 1 January 2026. Meanwhile, California’s AB405 Fashion Environmental Accountability Act of 2025—also known as ‘The Fashion Act’—has been passed. This legislation holds fashion brands accountable for reducing their GHG emissions and managing textile waste. It applies to brands with over $100 million in global revenue operating in the state. Chemtrust, Sourcing Journal
Technology and Innovation
On 17 February 2025, Elon Musk’s xAI launched Grok 3. Dubbed “the smartest AI on Earth”, the model boasts advancements in reasoning, computational power, and adaptability, having been trained on an unprecedented setup of 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs, making it ten times more powerful than Grok 2. Grok 3 marks a transformative leap in smart fashion, with innovations in Personalisation – Enhanced understanding of human preferences and real-time data adjustments (mood, activity, and weather-based fashion recommendations); Material Innovation – Development of smart fabrics with self-regulating temperature and moisture control; Augmented Design Process – Real-time design simulation across different body types, minimising material waste in prototyping and ultimately, Interactive Wearables – Smart clothing that responds to voice commands, provides biometric health advice, or interacts with other smart devices.
In other news, Grounded World has published “Policy to Profit: How New Rules Can Create Commercial Wins for Fashion”, the first in the Mind the Gap interactive white paper series. A go-to guide for navigating upcoming legislative and regulatory challenges, its content is informed by industry expert interviews, sustainability legal counsel, and real-time research, with AI integration. Grounded World
Lastly, Première Vision has also published its that its Season and Colour Report 2026 for Spring-Summer 2026 season—a valuable tool for designers developing their next collections. Premiere Vision