We’re looking forward to introducing you to Anna Tagliabue. Check out our conversation below.
Anna, really appreciate you sharing your stories and insights with us. The world would have so much more understanding and empathy if we all were a bit more open about our stories and how they have helped shaped our journey and worldview. Let’s jump in with a fun one: What are you most proud of building — that nobody sees?
What I’m most proud of building is the invisible infrastructure behind Pelush, the values, systems, and long-term vision that don’t show up in a single product or image.
Behind the scenes, I’ve spent years questioning how fashion operates: where materials come from, how stories are told, who benefits, and who pays the hidden cost. As Pelush evolves, that questioning has turned into action through technology, using AI, blockchain, and digital creation to design without extraction, to tell the truth rather than market an illusion, and to build transparency directly into the brand’s foundation.
What most people don’t see is the work of unlearning old luxury models and rebuilding new ones: experimenting with digital fashion, NFTs, tokenization, and gaming not as trends, but as tools for accountability, traceability, and creative freedom. Pelush is becoming a system where ethics, imagination, and innovation coexist, where ownership, authorship, and value are clearly defined and visible.
I’m proud that even when no one was watching, I chose integrity over shortcuts. I built Pelush to last, not just as a brand, but as a philosophy that can adapt, evolve, and stay honest in a rapidly changing world.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Anna Tagliabue, founder and creative director of Pelush, a luxury faux fur brand built on challenging outdated industry models and redefining how value is created in fashion.
At this stage of my journey, my work is less about defining what Pelush is against and more about exploring what it can become.
I’m deeply interested in how emerging technologies can unlock new forms of creativity, authorship, and connection. AI has become a powerful design partner in my process, allowing me to prototype worlds, garments, and narratives at a scale and speed that would have been unimaginable before. It’s not about replacing intuition, it’s about expanding it.
What excites me most is the intersection of digital fashion, gaming, and blockchain. These spaces allow brands to exist as living ecosystems rather than static products. Through tokenization and NFTs, I see opportunities to create transparent ownership, preserve creative integrity, and build communities that participate in the evolution of the brand rather than simply consume it.
Pelush is moving toward a model where imagination, technology, and values are inseparable. For me, the future of fashion isn’t physical versus digital, it’s about truth, traceability, and designing systems that respect both creativity and the world we live in.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
There was a moment when something quietly but irrevocably shifted in me, not through study, discipline, or any external teaching, but through a sudden, unmistakable clarity.
I realized that animals are not here for us. They are here with us.
In that instant, the illusion of separation dissolved. I saw that animals are sentient beings, carrying emotions, intelligence, memories, and distinct personalities, not unlike our own. We share the same space, the same breath, the same fragile and beautiful Earth. Nothing about that relationship is hierarchical. It is communal. Interconnected. Whole.
What surprised me most was that this realization didn’t come from years of yoga or meditation, even though those practices shaped my awareness in other ways. This was different. This was consciousness arriving through my open heart and intellect at the same time, a recognition that could only be reached by looking honestly, questioning deeply, and being willing to feel truth rather than intellectualize it.
I’ve always been curious by nature, and I’ve learned that no one can hand you this kind of understanding. It’s not taught. It’s discovered. You have to do your own research, your own listening, your own unlearning. Intelligence opens the door, but it’s the heart that lets you walk through it.
That moment changed how I see life itself. It grounded me in the understanding that we are not separate from animals or nature, we are part of the same living system. And once you truly see that, you can’t unsee it. You can only choose to live in alignment with it.
That was the moment I felt I felt I reached real consciousness, , not as an idea, but as a responsibility.
When did you last change your mind about something important?
I’ve learned to stay ready, mentally, emotionally, creatively, at any moment in time. I often say you have to keep your “tapping dancing shoes on.” Not in a chaotic way, but in a state of alert presence. Life moves, truth evolves, and so must we.
I don’t believe in getting married to ideas, identities, or fixed outcomes. I think it’s healthy, even necessary, to change your mind when new information, deeper understanding, or an internal signal tells you something no longer feels right. That doesn’t mean being inconsistent; it means being honest.
Many people become trapped inside a single point of view, ideology, or belief system. They cling to it because it feels safe or familiar, even when it no longer serves them or reflects reality. To me, real resilience comes from the ability to listen, to yourself, to the world, and to move accordingly.
Feeling matters. Intuition matters. But action matters just as much. Awareness without movement is stagnation. When something feels misaligned, I don’t intellectualize it endlessly, I adjust, recalibrate, and move forward. Swiftly and intentionally.
This approach applies to every aspect of life: personal, creative, and professional. Staying adaptable doesn’t mean lacking direction; it means staying in dialogue with truth as it reveals itself. And that flexibility, paired with decisive action, is where growth actually happens.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
I’m committed to Pelush for as long as it takes, without an expiration date, without shortcuts, and without compromise. Pelush isn’t just a project to me; it’s a lifelong commitment to reimagining how we coexist with animals, nature, and each other.
At its core, my belief is simple but unwavering: animals deserve protection, respect, and recognition as sentient beings, and humanity has the responsibility, and the intelligence, to evolve beyond exploitation. I’m committed to using every tool available to us to make that evolution possible. Technology, education, creativity, and transparency are not separate from compassion; they are some of its most powerful expressions.
Through Pelush, I want to help shift consciousness, not through fear or guilt, but through beauty, innovation, and truth. Whether it’s digital fashion, new technological frameworks, or educational platforms, my goal is to build systems that inspire empathy and empower people to make better choices for the planet and for all living beings.
This is not about speed or recognition. It’s about integrity and endurance. Real change takes time, and I’m here for the long journey, committed to learning, adapting, and doing everything I can to leave the world more conscious, more compassionate, and more unified than I found it.
Pelush is my promise to animals, to humanity, and to the future.
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. When do you feel most at peace?
I feel most at peace when I am surrounded by nature and animals. There is a language there that doesn’t require words, only presence. Animals offer a kind of unconditional love that is pure and grounding, a mutual recognition that exists beyond expectation or judgment. Being with them reminds me of what trust and gentleness truly feel like.
Nature, in turn, holds a profound healing power. It restores the spirit in ways nothing else can, through silence, rhythm, and beauty that asks nothing in return. In those moments, the noise of the world fades, and clarity returns. Everything feels aligned, intentional, and alive.
When I’m immersed in that kind of beauty, inspiration flows effortlessly. Ideas don’t feel forced; they arrive naturally, like breathing. It’s where creativity becomes gratitude, and peace becomes a quiet certainty that we are meant to live in harmony, with the earth, with animals, and with one another.
That is where I feel most whole.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.Pelush.com
- Instagram: @PelushNYC
- Linkedin: Anna Tagliabue
- Twitter: PelushNYC
- Facebook: Pelush
Image Credits
No credit. All rights reserved to Pelush.
