High Fashion & My Love for animals by: Paulina Kassak Brown

I’m a 33-year-old wife and mom of two children. I have a five-year-old son and an almost four-year-old daughter. I was supposed to earn a Master in Anthropology, but I was too lazy to write my thesis, and was too busy with traveling back and forth to the United States. Therefore, I only obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology. I’ve never knew what I wanted to do with my life and who I wanted to be. What I was sure of was that I wanted to have the liberty to do what I want. With regard to my college career, I chose to major in the pedagogy of adult education, with coaching. After a year, I passed my major and it was then that I left my country. I’ve always been active, and fitness used to be my biggest passion. However, this all changed after my children were born.

“I have always been a dog and animal lover. Consequently, I adopted a new lifestyle because of my love for animals.”

In 2013, I became a pescatarian and an eco-girl and I am currently trying to completely transform my lifestyle to a vegan one.

I have always been into fashion, even though I could not afford expensive stuff. My mom has always reminded me that what matters is who we are and how we treat others, and not what we wear and how we look. In fact, she never wanted me to focus on my looks or the materialistic things. But I have always paid attention to clothes, shoes, and accessories. My very first contact with fashion was at high school, where I met my friend, Marlena. She was a model traveling to Italy and France to do runway and she always wore designer brands such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Chanel.

In high school, I started paying even more attention to fashion and tried to change my style. I went from sporty to more elegant and chicer, but I still wasn’t where I wanted to be in terms of my style.

The first items of clothing I remember wearing were not from high-end designers but from Zara, Mango, Levi’s, H&M, Bershka, etc. Then, I bought my very first luxury item: an Yves Saint Laurent purse made of straws, followed by a Gucci velvet one.

It was then that I wanted more and more, all different brands. I decided to dig deeper into the fashion world and after a few years in college, I decided to write my Bachelor thesis about Coco Chanel and her Chanel 5 perfume – it was about the timeless phenomenon of the Chanel fragrance and the brand.

My favorite brands are Dior, Chanel, Prada, Balenciaga, Gucci, and Balmain. I think I like the French style more than I do the Italian one. I like simple, minimalist fashion, with subdued colors, as I believe that uniqueness and simplicity are the key!

Haute couture gives one the opportunity of being unique by wearing exceptional clothes. I like high fashion because I know that when I wear something from high fashion designers, it will be one of a kind look that I won’t see around a lot. However, it is hard to create a full look in a certain style, especially if someone buys faux leather and faux fur, like I do and unfortunately, since luxury brands are known for using real leather and fur, this can be even harder. In fact, I’ve have given up on so many high fashion pieces just because they were made of real leather. Moreover, I’ve became more aware of what’s going on and realized I don’t want to wear “dead skin”. As a result, I spend a lot of my time searching for cruelty free stuff, although at times they may not be vegan, it still makes me feel better as I know that I would be doing my best to save the animals.

My top six brands and their characteristic fabrics are the following:

Dior – Oblique canvas, oblique embroidery
Prada – Nylon
Chanel – Tweed
Balenciaga – Technical stretch knit
Yves Saint Laurent – Straw
Gucci – Velvet

I see potential in these brands, and I am glad they are trying to change something, even if it’s a slow progress and I can’t wait for when they become fully cruelty free. Ultimately, designer items have great value to them and they’re great collectibles. Therefore, it would be incredible if they were to keep up their value all whilst designing fashion that is cruelty free.

“I really hope that one day, all the luxury brands become absolutely cruelty free, and they stop using real leather and fur because there are many other amazing looking fabrics that can easily replace real leather and fur.”