Aurelia d’Andrea, travel and beauty editor at VegNews magazine.
Aurelia d’Andrea is the travel and beauty editor of VegNews, a print and online publication that is now based in Los Angeles after more than a decade in San Francisco. She has been a vegan for 18 years. According to d’Andrea, the world of vegan fashion — on both the producer and the retailer side — has exploded in the past two to three years. The Chronicle recently talked to the fashion editor about the changes she is seeing in this market. (This interview has been edited for space.)
Q: Can you give us a general sense of how the market for vegan fashion has evolved?
A: Fifteen years ago, finding vegan shoes was the biggest struggle for every vegan. There may have been two companies out there, one of which was Vegetarian Shoes in the U.K. You had to buy shoes through mail order, before Internet sales were a thing. The shoes weren’t everybody’s cup of tea, either — they were reaching to an audience of punky U.K. skinhead types. Every year since then, a new brand has come in and filled one of the voids. Today there are so many choices — from Payless Shoe Source, one of the only options we had 10 years ago, to luxury brands like Stella McCartney. Mostly the growth is at the expensive end of the spectrum. As people who appreciate fashion and want to live ethically, we are waiting for things to balance out so we don’t have to spend $250.
Q: Has it moved beyond shoes, too?
A: It has. We’re on the precipice of a big fashion revolution. So many designers in the last month, for example, have said they’re not going to work with fur.
Q: Online, I’ve noticed a number of retailers, like Vesta Studios, that are advertising vegan dresses or shirts. What does that mean?
A: Obviously, they’re not using silk, leather or wool. A lot of things we already wear are already vegan, but they’re giving it a name to differentiate from products made from animals. Cotton, all the synthethics, viscose, rayon, polyester, bamboo, hemp, linen — these are all vegan materials.
Q: Are you seeing new materials emerge, too?
A: On the more unique end of the spectrum, Veerah’s shoes made with apple-peel leather are a new one for me. There’s also Bourgeois Boheme, a high-end U.K. brand, that uses Pinatex, a fabric made from pineapple leaves. Cork is showing up a lot in vegan fashion. We’re seeing bags and some shoes. Even though it has been around, it’s being touted as high-tech because it’s breathable and antifungal. It has a lot of perks that are being marketed not just to consumers but producers. Mushroom leather is kind of like cork because it has some interesting properties that lend (themselves) to being great for shoes. There aren’t a lot of early adopters yet. The price point is still really high. It could really take off, but it’s asking a lot of the design industry to take those extra steps on a leap of faith.
Q: Are there particular brands that you think are knocking it out of the park?
A:Brave GentleMan, Joshua Katcher’s New York City company. He’s developing a woolly fabric that looks identical to what you’d have in a scarf but is made with high-tech synthetics, not just cheap crap made in a factory in China. His stuff is beautiful to look at and well made. Bhava Studio’s shoes are beautiful and quality. There are other people doing non-shoe stuff, like Vaute Couture, a New York City brand that focuses on non-leather, non-wool winter outerwear like coats and jackets. These companies care about the materials they source — they’re not just finding the cheapest stuff out there and applying it to great design.
Q: A lot of vegan fashion involves synthetic materials. Is there discussion in vegan circles about how highly processed they are?
A: That’s part of the conversation. My point of view is that producing anything has a cost to the environment. If you look at the leather industry, what chemicals are being used in the tanning and processing? It’s pretty environmentally destructive and also bad for animals. Right now, we’ve taken one of the negatives — the cruelty and exploitation of animals — out of the equation. Hopefully as technology advances and these synthetic leathers made from cultured animal cells come out, well, maybe that’s the answer. But we’re at least thinking about that. I’m not sure that conversation is happening in mainstream fashion unless you’re an ethical brand that uses fair trade leather or organic cotton.
Jonathan Kauffman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jkauffman@sfchronicle.com. Twitter and Instagram: @jonkauffman
D’Andrea’s recommended brands
Bhava Studio:https://bhavastudio.com
Bourgeois Boheme:https://www.bboheme.com
Brave GentleMan:https://www.bravegentleman.com
Vaute Couture:https://vautecouture.com
Veerah Shoes:https://www.veerah.com
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