Purist Vegans Dress Up
Vegans are strict vegetarians who won't consume any product that uses any part from any animal. Not even honey from bees.
So, where would these people go to shop for faux-leather, faux-croc skins, and other pricey-looking items of high fashion?
For the truly purist vegan, there's Matt & Nat; these designers not only shun animal products, but they up the green ante by using vegetable-based dyes and glue as well.
Stella McCartney, who publicly identifies herself as a vegetarian, builds her fashion business on cruelty-free principles. Her line offers attractive animal prints, which creates the look of wearing animal skins without really having an animal skinned and having the hide processed with abrasive and caustic chemicals.
Then, there's John Patrick's Organic line which was a 2008 finalist for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, an industry grant for emerging designers.
Some of these designers who create high fashion have websites that are not very accessible to the majority who belong to the middle class, but it's encouraging to see designers making a demand on manufacturers to produce materials that are environmentally friendly. In this age of competition and abundance, buying designer labels is getting easier.
After all, Vera Wang now designs more than just wedding gowns. There's the Vera Wang China and Crystal Collection, and there's a line of underwear and many more items under the Simply Vera banner, available at Kohl's.
Designs by Jimmy Choo are available in H&M stores; Isaac Mizrahi's creations are available at Target, and you can even get a designer toilet brush by Michael Graves for $5.99, at Target.
The point is, sooner or later, designer organic wear might make it to department stores that cater to the majority who belong to the middle class.
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