Working on an outfit for a semi-formal occasion

[Adoom]

Sorry for the dumb questions.

There's no dumb questions! It's a choice I have made to not wear animal products to the best of my ability. I don't eat them, I don't wear them. Truthfully the treatment of animals in North America is frightening and I try to not contribute to it. I don't like the idea of an animal dying for my needs. That said I was confronted recently with the option for a First Nations (my wife is Ojibwe) piece of beaded jewelry that was made by a woman who used only animals that had died from natural causes. I had not been given that kind of choice before. It was a piece made with porcupine quills from an animal she had found dead. In the end we did purchase it as the story that came with it spoke to honouring the animal, the animal not dying for the jewelry but rather the jewelry supporting the woman who made it, etc etc. But if it's just "yeah it's leather man, because leather is traditional and cool" than no, I don't participate.