Elizabeth Olsen Rocks! March 17, 2009

I periodically stop by Huntington Central Library, take the elevator up to the periodicals floor, and spend an hour or two there reading all the fashion magazines to stay on top of current trends. This past Saturday, I was disgusted to see an article in Lucky Magazine falsely claim that “eco friendly” leather exists. It doesn’t. Anyone with a basic understanding of textile science would know that…but most people who consider themselves veg*n or eco-conscious don’t study textile production (these days, most people, veg or not, don’t), and some are duped into buying “vegetable dyed” or “vegetable tanned” leather, mistakenly believing it to be a greener choice than all synthetics.

I’ve been on the Girlie Girl Army mailing list for a while (and highly recommend it). I was glad to see the latest newsletter link back to a GGA blog entry from five days ago, guest-written by Elizabeth Olsen, who designs the Olsen Haus vegan shoe line.

For years, I have been trying to use my knowledge and background for the better, especially as it relates to animal-friendly shopping. I answer a dozen questions a day about vegan footwear, including plenty about its environmental effects. I even penned an article for (now-defunct) Herbivore Magazine including the subject, though as the online format proved unpopular with many readers, very few people actually got around to reading it. (I’d link to the article, but the website seems to have vanished. Perhaps when ex-editor Josh Hooten is back in town I’ll seek permission to post it here, as it’s still saved on my hard drive. He’s on a 600-mile bike ride to raise money for Farm Sanctuary and I hate to bother people when they’re on the road.)

In addition to my schooling and personal experience, I put in over 100 hours of my own research for the article. Yet, it’s appalling how many people don’t want to accept the facts (or don’t want to believe me for some reason…for the record, I did NOT profit from that article in any way; it was written strictly as a public service). Elizabeth has been vegan for much, much longer than I have, and has done more research than I have, so hopefully the eco/veggie community will listen to her.

In the comments, one ill-informed reader actually had the nerve to inquire (rather rudely, I thought) whether Elizabeth had actually researched labor issues and the chemicals/byproducts involved in synthetic vs. leather manufacturing. Obviously, she did. One cannot possibly hope to have a serious discussion about the environmental effects of leather or synthetics without researching any chemicals or byproducts involved, and no true vegan would knowingly support child labor. A socially conscious vegan designer would, of course, do her own research concerning the precise origins of the materials available to her (assuming she knew what she was doing, and it’s clear Ms. Olsen does). Of course, Elizabeth is smart enough not to take such a ridiculous inquiry lying down, and replies:

Because this is a blog, I don’t have the space to go into depth with your issues , but… there is skirting around the real issue of the tremendous harm leather causes, obviously to the animals, but also the environment,….Yes, I have done extensive research over the last 20 years, have you?

Thank you, Elizabeth Olsen (and GGA founder Chloé Jo Berman) for bringing the truth to light. Keep it up – stylish people who love animals, the planet, or both need you.

Veg*ns: Don’t Ask Fashion Girl February 16, 2009

I spent my Saturday afternoon at the FIDM gallery in downtown LA, enjoying the 17th Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design exhibit. Costumes from “Elizabeth: The Golden Age,” “The Other Boleyn Girl,” and several other well-dressed films are featured – it’s well worth the trip if you can make it before the exhibit closes on March 29. (Warning: some of the film costumes incorporate real fur. Sadly, not all costume designers have caught on that real fur is cruel, disgusting, and not at all necessary for the silver screen when there are so many realistic fakes out there.)

(Side note: the exhibit also featured a mock snack-bar display complete with an old snack-bar intermission film…including creepily suicidal hot dogs. The most disturbing clip of all featured a feminine-looking hot dog styling a mustard-and-relish “hairdo” in front of a vanity, then slipping on a bun like it was an expensive evening coat. Dolling oneself up to be eaten… Carol Adams would certainly have something to say about that! I’d submit that clip to Suicide Food, but it isn’t available for viewing online.)

FIDM, or Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, is a private college that prepares students for careers in fashion and various related fields. They’re also something of a community fashion resource, putting together and hosting fashion-related exhibits (including a television costume exhibit every summer), maintaining one of the world’s largest fashion libraries, serving as the permanent home of the Annette Green Perfume Museum (worth a visit when it’s open – call ahead before making the trip), and even providing its own online advice column, Ask Fashion Girl.

For the most part, Fashion Girl’s answers to questions are good. However, she gave an extremely poor and completely unresearched answer to one reader – a vegetarian named Robin wanting to know where to buy leather-free apparel without having to rely on (eew! ick! evil!) Payless.

Fashion Girl’s answer:

Payless and other inexpensive shoe and clothes stores are where you are going to find artificial, or vegetarian, leather. As they go up in price, stores pride themselves on carrying the real thing (in this case, genuine leather), so the lower-priced stores are where it makes sense to be sleuthing fake fashion finds.

The good news is that some of the more inexpensive stores are really trendy and are able to”knock-off,”or reproduce, the latest styles in imitation materials really quickly and cheaply.

Payless is just about the best place to find imitation leather shoes, since their styles change pretty often and they have a wide selection. I also recommend stores such as Walmart and K-Mart for faux leather and suede, and possibly JC Penney.

Look for a discount store near you that specializes in”disposable fashion”– trendy styles that are super-cheap and meant to be worn for a short time, then tossed aside. This is where you are more likely to find faux suede and leather.

In other words, FG’s advice boils down to “I can’t be bothered to do any real research, so just keep buying crap.”

When the article was posted, vegan-friendly companies like Matt & Nat, Vegetarian Shoes, Queen Bee, and Truth Belts had already been in business for years. Even Stella McCartney’s brand-new label was gaining notice at the time. A quick online search would have unearthed all of them, and probably more. There is no excuse for such a crappy response.

Robin specified that she was looking for stores other than Payless (it doesn’t take a genius to realize their wares are not at all a good investment). Yet, FG lazily tells her Payless is where to go. She also tells her to buy cheap knockoffs, which I’ve ranted and railed about in previous posts (long story short: cheap knockoffs are EVIL).  Worst of all, she lists other stores that specialize in low-quality materials, highly questionable workmanship, and horrid conditions for employees…and “disposable fashion”, which generates much more waste than investment fashion. Real smart of FG, given that most vegetarians also have a soft spot for the environment.

FG had a great opportunity to give herbivores a much-needed voice in the world of style. Instead, she silenced the sartorial voices of Robin and any other plant-eaters reading the column. She screwed up, and I can only hope her answer will be removed from the archives so no one ever sees it again…without me having to call in a favor from a FIDM professor I know. (Which I’m not above doing. I want the entire vegetarian community to know they don’t ever have to buy awful shoes again, even if I don’t personally profit from that knowledge.)

Here is how my response to Robin would have read:

Dear Robin,

Fortunately, it has gotten easier to purchase leather-free goods in recent years, and you no longer have to set foot in cheap chain stores to do it.

There are several all-vegetarian apparel companies, and some companies that do use leather or suede have begun to produce vegetarian styles.

For sneakers, Macbeth makes several vegan styles every season, and they are clearly labeled as such. Ethletics makes fair-trade, sustainable, organic sneakers similar to Converse (real Converse sneakers have bone glue and are made by Nike, don’t buy ‘em). Check with your nearest New Balance or Saucony store if you want a more athletic shoe.

I strongly recommend owning at least one pair of Vegetarian Shoes – they make sturdy boots, low heels, basic flats, sneakers, belts (mostly in basic brown or black), some dressier shoes, animal-friendly shoe polish, and even offer a basic nylon ripper wallet. (These are probably not going to be the fancy shoes you wear out clubbing – they’re workhorse shoes. They’re made of better-quality materials than cheap chain-store shoes – most styles breathe well and are waterproof. VS’ wares are of good quality, sweat-free, and can last for years with proper care.)

For cuter, fancier, feminine shoes on a budget, I recommend Madden Girl over other budget brands. Madden Girl is part of the Steve Madden empire, and is of somewhat better quality than most inexpensive shoes. MG has flats and heels in the $30-45 range, which is a bit more than some cheaper lines, but they are made with somewhat-better materials. (Truthfully, the materials don’t breathe as well as the quality brands, but you get what you pay for.)

For women’s shoes on a mid-range budget, NeuAura rules. I live in my NeuAuras. The designer worked for a high-end label before starting the company, so she understands the importance of good fit, good structure, and good materials. Bonus: NeuAura shoes are made in a fair-trade green factory.

If you like your belts to be a little more interesting, there’s always Truth Belts. Materials include a variety of fabrics as well as realistic faux leather in black or brown, patent or matte. Vegan Erotica also makes belts. Both companies make their goods by hand, not in sweatshops.

Queen Bee Creations and Matt & Nat both make bags and wallets – QB in colorful PVC-free vinyl and Matt & Nat in a variety of fake leathers and other fabrics (they are focusing more on sustainable and recycled materials these days). English Retreads and Used Rubber USA make accessories out of recycled rubber from tires (the rubber smell dissipates somewhat with time, though some people really dislike it). M&N has raised prices significantly to cover the cost of going greener, so if you truly cannot afford their goods,  eBay often has listings for older, discontinued pieces (it’s where I bought my beloved M&N Slick travel bag in the highly-coveted patent black), but don’t count on finding anything from the current season.

Beyond Skin hand-makes women’s shoes in two lines – one basic, one higher-end, all gorgeous. MINK makes handmade vegan women’s shoes at the higher end, and if the sky’s the limit (alas, for me it is not), Stella McCartney’s got you covered (she also does some belts). Veg Italian Style makes very classic men’s and women’s styles, if exchange rates and shipping from Italy aren’t a deterrent. There is one higher-end men’s vegetarian shoe company, Noharm, though as the market for top-of-the-line men’s veg shoes is still a small one, I haven’t yet seen a pair in action.

As for faux suede, do a search for Ultrasuede. Ultrasuede is a very realistic faux suede – many people never realize it’s not cow suede – and is often used to inexpensively manufacture garments that resemble suede. As it’s so close to springtime, the pickings might be slim, so search again in late August to mid-September and something is bound to turn up. (Or, you can DIY: find an Ultrasuede dealer, buy a few yards, and make the exact jacket you want. It’s what I did when I couldn’t find the mid-calf-length faux leopard coat I wanted.) There are other brands of faux suede out there (Louis Vuitton even uses one to line their trunks!), but Ultrasuede will be the easiest to find.

I hope you find this information useful, and good luck building the wardrobe you want!

- Vegan Shoe Lady

Swayed by Suede? Never! January 13, 2009

On Friday night, I got the damn suede question again. This time it was whether I’d ever carry any of Macbeth’s suede offerings. Gee, let me think about that…no.

I never cease to be amazed by how many people, veg*n or not, don’t know what certain materials actually are. I knew suede was animal skin by the time I was 11 years old, long before I decided to study fashion. (I realize there will always be a select few people who don’t recognize a vegan store when they see it, but come ON.)

With that in mind, here’s a brief lexicon of terms you may encounter when buying shoes:

Patent leather – Leather with a “patent” (shiny) finish. Some uninformed veg*ns think it’s fake leather. Trust me, it’s animal skin. (Faux leather with a patent finish is not called patent leather, so don’t let some unscrupulous merchant dupe you.)

Suede – The soft back side of leather (definitely not vegan!). Faux suede kicks real suede’s arse – not only is it cruelty-free, it requires very little upkeep and can take a beating. I had a suede coat I loved in high school, but it required more cleaning and brushing than all of the family pets combined (and still looked awful after two years).

Shearling – Sheep fur. The skin is still attached, ergo it is fur. The sheepskin industry coined the deceptive term “shearling” – it sounds a lot less cruel that way, doesn’t it? Don’t let anyone trick you into thinking this stuff is merely shorn off the sheep – especially if it’s obviously still rooted in the skin when you take the time to look closely. (Remember how many people mocked Pamela Anderson’s naïveté for not realizing her Ugg boots went above and beyond ‘not vegan’? Shearling is passé anyway, so save your money.)

“Veg-tan” or “vegetable tanned” leather – leather tanned using plant-derived materials. Not suitable for ethical vegetarians or vegans, only slightly less toxic than chrome-tanned leather, and requires an immense amount of energy to produce compared to chrome-tan leather or faux leather (the reason it fell out of favor long ago). Vegetable tanning agents aren’t *quite* as effective as chrome, so even if you’re eco-guilted into wasting money on something vegetable tanned, it’s not going to last as long as chrome-tan leather or a good fake. Every pair of vegetable-tanned leather shoes that I or my business partners have ever seen started to look like absolute crap after the wearer had worn them for 2-3 months. (Note: do NOT confuse this stuff with the “Vegetan” materials used by Vegetarian Shoes. All of VS’ materials are 100% animal-free.)

Leather vs. Faux Leather, Round 2 September 16, 2008

The average American consumer knows very little (or nothing) about leather analogues. Most people associate them with the poor-quality vinyl sold at certain chain stores (naming no names, of course, but you know who I’m talking about)  and assume that leather “must” be better for the environment, but they are not exactly correct on either count.

If you know me offline, you may remember my article in Herbivore magazinelast year. Another article, which appeared in The Guardian (UK) on August 27, 2008, may silence uneducated critics more effectively as it is a very well-respected news source rather than a lifestyle magazine (albeit a very good magazine that I for one am sad to see shut down). While certainly not exhaustive,the article does correct the most common assumptions.

P.S. Tune in to BONES tomorrow night; the episode will provide a glimpse into the ugly world of dog fighting. Do I smell a future Genesis Award?

P.P.S. Tomorrow is also my birthday, so wish me a good one