Vegan Fashion Grabbing Attention

Most likely due to Earth Day coming up, vegan fashion has been garnering attention from mainstream fashion media. The latest example? In an online exclusive, W Magazine posted their "best vegan-friendly accessories" , which included Vivienne Westwood's capsule collection for Melissa Plastic Dreams, my favorite olsenHaus, and local vegan brand MATT & NAT. The list even included vegan-friendly options from designer staples like Marc by Marc Jacobs and Stella McCartney--although, clearly not having done their research, they featured a cashmere tunic from the vegetarian designer. A gaffe that readers didn't let slip.

olsenHaus sandalMATT & NAT bag

Marc by Marc Jacobs sequined bag

With luxury magazines like W and Vogue taking notice of the merits of vegan brands, I can't help but wonder, is vegan the new luxury goldmine?

In other vegan-related fashion news, The Humane Society announced late last week that the Benetton Group is the latest brand to commit to a fur-free policy, joining Calvin Klein, overstock.com, BCBG, and others.

Visit the HSUS website to see a complete list of fur-free companies and take the fur-free pledge yourself.

Springtime Shopping with a Soul

Have you been a good little squirrel, stashing away your pennies these last few wintery months? With the sun shining and temperatures rising, are you itching to spend them away? If so, what better way than by supporting a good cause?

From now until the end of the month, visit charitybuzz to view the Farm Sanctuary's Spring Auction and bid on fantastic goodies. Need to update your shoe collection? Bid on an online shopping spree with UK vegan super-brand Beyond Skin or New York's Neuaura Shoes. Get private vegan or raw cooking lessons, yoga sessions, life coaching, celeb meet-and-greets, and so much more. Even local vegan brand, Matt & Nat, has put a stylish unisex carry-all up for auction. With almost 60 different lots to bid on, choosing should be the hardest part.

The Farm Sanctuary, located in Upstate New York and California, actively rescues and houses farm animals, where they live out their natural lives in peace and harmony. Animals freely roam, graze, and play. Visit their website to read their stories, donate, and even foster. The farms are also open to the public for visits. The Farm Sanctuary is an amazing organization, staffed by some of the warmest people I've had the pleasure of working with. With such important work being done, they need and deserve as much help as possible.

Stella McCartney Fall Accessories

In February, vegetarian super-designer Stella McCartney presented Pre-Fall 09 at New York Fashion Week, and, this week, her Fall 09 RTW collection in Paris. With Pre-Fall, looks were the slouchy, downtown silhouette that Stella has become known for. With tons of leggings and jumpsuits, Pre-Fall had a sportswear feel. Accessories were dominated by oversized bags, the ever-pervasive ankle bootie that just won’t go away since its appearance in Fall 2007, pumps, and heavy hardware. Prints were found on everything from underpinnings, to booties, and bags.

Stella McCartney Pre-Fall 09, style.com

For Fall 09, the thigh-high boots that skimmed just past the knee in Pre-Fall have sprouted into full leggings. In latex materials, some with tattoo-like patterns, these boots-come-leggings were paired with everything from dresses to oversized men’s blazers. The cropped bootie still makes an appearance, but these too have grown in length reaching calf-height. All footwear, including the lady-like pumps, had extreme square toes in contrasting colors and materials. Colors were neutral, relying heavily on black with small doses of dove grey and a bright jade green. Bags were mainly oversized clutches, varying widely from recent collections past, with circular-quilting. Belts varied between the wide and the ultra-skinny, with no variance in between. The collection, overall, referenced 1980s Wall Street with exaggerated shoulders and masculine looks.

Stella McCartney Fall 09, style.com

But for a little taste of this season, here are three favorite looks from Spring, available online and in stores.

Stella McCartney Spring 09, styles range from $1295 to $395

Olsen Haus: Accessorizing the Evolution

If you haven't discovered Olsen Haus shoes yet, run, or whatever the cyber equivalent is, to their site right now. This 100% ethical line, founded by designer extraordinaire Elizabeth Olsen, makes this little struggling vegan's heart sing. The collection of shoes and boots is inventive, vegan, socially and environmentally responsible, and affordable. What more could a girl ask for? As a lover of both fashion and ridiculously high heels, I find footwear one of my biggest struggles. Shoes are irrestible, but, sadly, I simply don't have the budget needed to quench my shoe thirst with MacCartneys. And a girl gets really bored of cheap, synthetic shoes really fast.

But Olsen Haus solves all these problems. Currently available in only one store in Canada (in Calgary), they will ship to Canada for a mere $50 extra. So shop to your heart's content.

For Spring 09, the colors are bright electrics mixed with natural linens, microfibers, Italian ultra suede, and signature paint splatters. The collection is both fresh, sweet, and boldly unconventional. Personally, I cannot wait to get my feet into these two lovelies:

"BALANCE", Natural Linen with Microfibre, $175 USD

"LOVE", Italian Ultra Suede in Teal with signature paint splatters, $160 USD

There are also these perfect year-round, classic boots from the Fall 08 collection, which arestill available. Lust at first sight, they have rarely strayed far from my thoughts.

"LUCK", Italian Ultra Suede in Black with signature paint splatters, $215 USD

For Fall 09, Olsen Haus shot fellow super-vegans Chloe Jo Berman of The GirlieGirl Army and Discerning Brute Joshua Katcher for their lookbook. The new collection features boots galore, including a pair of micro suede riding boots that have taken over all of my daydreams, as well as the premiere of both a kid's and men's collection.

The only question left is how to convince Elizabeth to bring the evolution to Canada?