Gone are the days when I’d buy sky-high heels or feminine flats on a mere whim. Even though I have greatly simplified my closet over the last few years, I still have a soft spot for gorgeous vegan shoes. These days, I’m just as selective about my fashion as I am with food I eat and what beauty products I’ll slather on my skin. It all comes down to research.
For me, the people behind any vegan fashion product, and their philosophies, are just as important as the items they produce. Veteran vegetarian footwear designers Nancy Dong and Carlotta Fiorini, say they wanted their passion for beautiful shoe design to have a positive impact on the planet—and to be very much part of the solution. Sounds good to me. Plus, their shoes are divine.
The passionate fashionistas have ensured wearing earth-friendly fashion doesn’t mean you have to wear hemp sacks on your feet—doing good for animals and the planet can be done in style (without forsaking comfort, either). Inspired by the social entrepreneur business model, they created the very vegan and ecological Do-Ni. Made from high-quality Italian leather-free materials, their Do-Ni Nobilia ballerinas (see below) are held together with water-based, animal-free glue and adorned with pre-consumer recycled components. Love!
For Nancy and Carlotta, doing good hasn’t stopped with simply creating eco-friendly footwear. With the direct sale of each pair, 100 percent of retail proceeds are donated to non-profit organisations, with the buyer given the choice of exactly where the money goes. To look great and give back, head to www.do-ni.com for more info.
Five fun ways to be very, very vegan (and romantic) on Valentines Day…
1) Make your favourite person (or yourself) a delish vegan breakfast in bed. Pancakes and Valentines Day just seem to go together. Check out these delectables from one of my fave foodie blogs, VeganYumYum (I like to replace ingredients such as soy milk with freshly made nut milk, sugar with raw agave nectar, and salt with Celtic sea salt etc). Even if you’re your own valentine, it’s still great to whip up a gourmet breakfast and head back to bed to eat it! Also, check out Vegan Yum Yum’s new recipe book: Decadent (But Doable) Animal-free Recipes for Entertaining and Every Day for more romantic brekky and dinner recipes.
SLOW RISE PANCAKES
Makes 8 thick 5″ pancakes
2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
2 1/4 tsp Active Dry Yeast (one packet)
1 tsp Salt
2 tsp Sugar
1 1/2 Cup Soymilk (or other non-dairy milk)
2 Tbs Oil
1 Ener-g Egg, prepared (1.5 tsp mixed with 2 Tbs water)
1/3 Cup Soymilk, for thinning the next morning, if desired
Whisk all the dry ingredients together until well combined. Add the rest of the ingredients (except the 1/3 cup of soymilk) and mix well. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Use batter anytime the next day.
Once you’re ready to make pancakes, remove the batter from the fridge and stir in up to 1/3 cup of soymilk to thin it if needed/desired. Let the batter sit out on the counter for 20-30 minutes. Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat. Spray with spray oil and wipe out the pan.
Using a 1/3 cup measure, begin making pancakes. I added apple slices to the batter before it set:
You can add anything you fancy: blueberries, chocolate chips, bananas, strawberries, etc.
Once the top is bubbly and the edges are set, check to make sure the bottom is brown. Flip:
Cook on the other side for another few minutes until browned. Stack pancakes in a low oven to keep warm, serve with earth balance margarine and maple syrup.
2) A card (of course!). Recycling anything from cardboard to fabric can make for a gorgeous love token. See this how-to guide from About.com. For those who love a little graphic design in their Valentines Day, check out this sweet duo from Jeannie and Jewell.
Read More Post a comment (0)
When you’re an eco girl who loves fashion, finding the right look can sometimes be tricky. While there are more conscious designers adding their collections to the market than ever before, there are also plenty that can leave the urban eco fashionista a little depressed. It wasn’t so long ago that the words “vegan” and “fashionable” simply couldn’t be used in the same sentence. But times, they are (thankfully) a’changin’.
I recently spied hot eco label Lav and Kush and fell completely in love with their pretty designs. Besides the fact they’re green, Lav and Kush’s designs are also stylish, functional with a sweet simplicity.
The clever Canadian designers also give away some of their profits to some great charities including The David Suzuki Foundation (www.davidsuzuki.org), PETA (www.peta.org) and Imagine 1 Day (www.imagine1day.org).
Check out the the complete collection at Lavandkush.com.
If you’ve not yet discovered Etsy, the site where all things handmade rule, some may well say you haven’t lived. Here, a few of the world’s artistically-talented souls gather to sell gorgeous wares, some of which are vegan.
Here’s a preview of some of my favourite Etsy fashion finds of the moment…
Cloche hat from Giant Dwarf
Made from recycled peony pink faux cashmere sweater, embellished with 10 hand-cut grapefruit and ginger fancy felt petals, assembled into a single flower. The over-sized blossom is topped with a hand-pressed button. $USD45.
Soft Cotton Bracelet from Eastern Sky
While these sweet bracelets above are made from vegan-friendly cotton, the shop also makes some of their pieces from Merino wool, so be sure to look carefully when choosing. $USD12.
Read More Post a comment (2)
2010 has hit full force. You can feel the electricity in the air.
I ended 2009 by cleaning out, dusting, getting rid of all the old, stuck energy in preparation for the new year. And now the start of a new decade has arrived, it’s time to dig even deeper. It’s time to get knee-deep into my wardrobe.
I’ve decided to box up everything I haven’t worn in the past six months, clothes I’m not really sure about, stuff that’s too big, too small, wrong colour. Even the items I don’t wear, but am sentimental about. Yep, they’re going too. My chosen charity awaits.
The year 2010 is about giving back. Living more simply. Thinking of others less fortunate. Giving without expecting anything in return. Just thinking about living that way feels good. So to do it must feel even better—for the giver and receiver.
Read More Post a comment (0)
For every one celeb that goes on drunken binges and late night joy rides, there’s at least two who spend their time doing positive things. Take Charlize Theron for example. The talented actress has teamed up with Toms Shoes, the company that gives a pair of shoes to the needy with every pair sold—a one-for-one-deal.
Charlize co-designed a pair of the unisex, limited edition slip ons for her African Outreach Project. The design (see below) was launched on the footwear website just yesterday.
Made from all-vegan material, Charlize’s shoes were inspired by the baobab tree and feature the tree’s silhouette, which is embroidered on blue and orange canvas.
A portion of the proceeds from each pair will go directly to the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project, which provides education about the need to provide sustainable health, education and recreational resources to remote areas with high rates of HIV/AIDS.
“I’m thrilled to have Toms Shoes as a partner,” Charlize says. “We are so grateful for their generous donation of shoes to the students that we work with. They are passionate about the kids and have been incredibly supportive of the work of the Africa Outreach Project. It’s exciting that we’re able to come together in such a cool and creative way to bring attention to the needs of many South African youth.”
The limited-edition, vegan shoes are available for $US54 and are sold exclusively on Tomsshoes.com. Best get in quick if you’re keen to snap up your own pair … the women’s style is already on backorder…
Rumour has it that vegetarian Leona Lewis has gone vegan, thanks to her designer pal Stella McCartney. The friends are also said to be hooking up to create a vegan fashion line under songstress Leona’s name.
To celebrate this match made in vegan heaven, here’s a peek at Stella’s 2010 Spring/Summer collection. Gorgeous, and proof that vegan fashion doesn’t have to be ugly! (I wonder if Stella employs vegan-only models?)
Photo: Mitchell Sams for Marie Claire
Photo: Mitchell Sams for Marie Claire
Photo: Mitchell Sams for Marie Claire
Photo: Mitchell Sams for Marie Claire
