GUNAS is an independent high fashion label with a cause! Started in 2009 by designer and animal lover, Sugandh G. Agrawal, GUNAS's heart and soul screams to be the voice of animals. With an award winning design and business background, Sugandh quit her 7-year corporate career as an Industrial designer at KitchenAid to start her own brand of cruelty-free fashion in New York. Her mission is strong and clear. Animals are NOT meant to be a part of fashion. We can look and feel good without harming other living beings. We need to connect our selves with what goes on behind the scenes and question our actions and their impacts.
What initially began as an all MADE IN NYC label, has now gone global to source and manufacture bags and shoes using artisan and small-scale ethical manufacturers from countries such as India, South Korea, Mexico, Brazil and Hong Kong. With styles ranging from totes, satchels, cross-body bags, wallets and backpacks GUNAS has a bag to suit your every mood and lifestyle need.
Veganism is a lifestyle choice that’s all about protecting animals by avoiding the use of objects made from animals, animal by-products or using animal testing. Let’s just understand that Leather is “not”a by-product of the meat industry. Raising animals for food and leather requires huge amounts of feed, pasture land, water, and fossil fuels. Turning skin into leather requires massive amounts of energy and dangerous chemicals, including mineral salts, formaldehyde, coal-tar derivatives, and various oils, dyes, and finishes, many of them cyanide-based. Most leathers are chrome-tanned, a lot of which gets washed away into our fresh water supplies during the process of making leather. People who work in tanneries or live close by often suffer from cancer, lung damage caused by exposure to toxic chemicals used to process and dye the leather. “Non-leather” alternatives account for only a fraction of petroleum used in contrast to leather.
Leather not only causes suffering for the animals but also causes harm to our environment, the people that produce it and also those who choose to wear it.
Long Island City, New York
