Faux is the Way to Go

Vegan fashion that's popular and affordable
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
EVELYN SHIH

Ten years ago, Kim Berndt of Edgewater decided to donate a pair of leather shoes. The seemingly unremarkable act was actually part of a significant lifestyle change. About a year later, she wore no leather on any part of her body. Neither did she touch silk, wool or down.

[left, staff photo of Kim Berndt by photographer Carmine Galasso]

Berndt is a vegan, and that doesn’t just mean she doesn’t eat meat. It means that in every facet of her life, whether she’s using soap, applying makeup or lazing on her couch, she uses no animal products.

“Vegans are like vegetarians who walk the walk,” said Allison Holoday of West Milford, vegan outreach director for the New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance (NJARA). “Instead of just being an eating habit, it goes into your lifestyle.”

You may be skeptical: That lifestyle sounds like a lot of hemp and hippie clothes. But according to Berndt, that was so 10 years ago.

Back then, “in terms of fashion, you were kind of trading in your sense of style for your morals,” she said. She had to buy some clunky shoes online from the United Kingdom and some “retro” clothing at the beginning of her transition.

But now “there’s some really fashionable stuff out there.” Not only are vegan fashions booming in Internet retail, but a walk through the mall will yield a wardrobe young and hip enough to satisfy the style quotient for conscientious fashionistas.

So far, so good

Finding fashion hasn’t been a problem so far for Ramapo College junior Julie MacDonald, who has been living vegan for only six months. A recent post-holiday shopping spree yielded two pieces from Bebe, a faux-shearling winter coat and a bright satin trench.

She’s discovered other cruelty-free accouterments at familiar mall stores such as Esprit, The Limited, H&M, Mandee and Forever 21.

“I find that it’s rather easy when you’re on a budget,” she said.

Nevertheless, shopping now involves reading a lot of fine print, MacDonald added. “It’s like when you go food shopping and you’re constantly looking at labels for non-vegan ingredients,” she said.

Certain stores, especially those targeted to the budget-conscious shopper, can be counted on to have no real animal products. Payless Shoe Source, for example, is a reliable source of man-made material shoes. Target, too, is a place to find non-leather footwear. When it comes to economizing, mass market manufacturers and vegans agree: Faux is the way to go. Synthetic materials from leather substitute “vegetan” to down substitutes Gore-Tex and Micro-fil have flooded the market.

But that’s not to say that vegan clothing is low-quality. As with fur, “real” animal products such as leather, down, silk and wool have traditionally been understood as luxury items or signs of quality clothing. Vegan clothing today has evolved to its own standard of quality.

For long-lasting shoes, Berndt’s favorite store is MooShoes in downtown Manhattan. An all-vegan boutique, it carries brands such as the U.K.-based Vegetarian Shoes and European Novacas (“no cows” in Spanish).

“I have a pair of boots from Vegetarian Shoes,” said Berndt. “They’re dress boots, but they’re so strong I kicked the ice off my porch the other day, and it didn’t hurt them at all.”

Vegan designers such as Canadian handbag creators Matt & Nat make original pieces specifically for vegan consumers. Niche needs have fueled the creation of faux-leather bomber jackets.

Icon and vocal vegan

But if you’re looking to make a fashion statement, look no further than icon and vocal vegan Stella McCartney. McCartney’s lines make no use of animal products and bring legitimacy to the vegan lifestyle.

“People feel like there’s almost a stigma” attached to veganism, said MacDonald. “Like when I make food and I tell people it’s vegan, they say, ‘Oh, that must be gross’ or ‘That must be weird.’

“But Stella McCartney is very well respected, and she’s a vegan,” she said.

Drawn to McCartney’s reputation, Berndt sought out outerwear she designed for Adidas and purchased a warm, fashionable winter coat. She calls it one of her best purchases last year.

It’s a myth, she adds, that there are no warm vegan coats.

“I think that’s a huge misconception,” she said. “Every year, there’s more and more new technology coming out … there are faux-down coats that are even warmer than wearing real animal products.”

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com