vegansaurus!

Beyond Skin spring ‘12 line!  »

Spring in England will find all the well-shod vegans wearing Beyond Skin. They’re lovely! This season there’s lots of (faux!) snakeskin, metallics, and big, bold patterns in bright colors and clean, creamy whites. They’ve got something like 37 new styles, of which I have picked six to represent. Check out all their new styles in the Beyond Skin VIP Lounge, where you can pre-order your spring shoes. (They ship at the “end of February,” so maybe next week?) And as always, Beyond Skin takes great care to ensure their shoes are eco-friendly and their production is human-friendly. They’re so ethical!

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Get to work: Vegan business accessories!  »

A pal of Vegansaurus just got a fancy new job and wants to know what fancy vegan shoes and accessories she should buy, so here are some of my suggestions! This is for chicks. Men, check out my men’s dress shoe round-up from last year because that list was the hotness. 

I’ve said it a million times, but Beyond Skin is definitely my favorite vegan shoe brand. Eco-friendly and worker-friendly, they are also beautiful. If you want a simple pump, I love a good kitten heel like the Leona:

I have these and they look sexy, clean, and chic. The low heel makes them good for wearing for extended periods of time. They have limited sizes now (though there’s a few other colors that might be in your size), so get on that if they have yours.

If you want to go with a classic menswear look, I like oxfords like this Antique Brogue from Vegetarian Shoes on Mooshoes:

Very nice. You can go for a Katharine Hepburn style and complete the look! And be awesome!

Sorry for the bitty picture, but I like the Selene from Bourgeois Boheme:

This mary jane comes in black and brown. Black shoes are great for work but you should have at least one pair of brown shoes.

Basically, one pair of brown dress shoes, black heels, and a nice pair of oxfords is a good work shoe collection to start with. Then you can build your collection from there with some more exciting shoes! I love this new Eva flat from Beyond Skin:

I’d expect you have to break these in a little but it will be so worth it! These are very stylish but conservative enough for an office. I love these so very much. Cally says they are great too! So you know they’re great. 

If you want to go taller (and cheaper), Lulu’s is a great resource. I like this GoMax Oksana pump:

I doubt I could wear these but women in offices definitely do wear shoes like this. If you can do it, go for it. 

Now that we have some nice shoe options, let’s look at bags! Matt and Nat is definitely the best brand for vegan professional looking bags. I really like this laptop bag, the Creed:

This is super-pro. It’s classic but sleek and modern. 

Another Matt and Nat bag, the Barnes has that whole lit professor look:

If you have a smaller laptop and want to go more feminine, check out this Taylor Satchel from Reveal:

Very pretty. But my laptop is large and in charge. 

As for other things you may need, a belt is nice. I like the Garrison from The Vegan Colleciton because it has a gold buckle and I’m all about gold (silver is 90s!):

For nice wallets, Matt and Nat is again great but I’m also a big fan of Shiraleah. The Sutton wallet by Shiraleah is pretty smart:

I used to have a Shiraleah but I lost it. It was so great though, really good quality. Looks like Shiraleah has a laptop bag or two as well. 

Once you have your accessories, you can get non-wool trousers and top with non-wool dress coat or classic trench and you are set! Anything else you need to know you can learn from Working Girl. 

Compassion Couture is having a super-sale! Get on it!  »

Heads up!: Compassion Couture is having their biggest sale ever! Twenty-five percent off everything with the coupon code “HolidayShopping.” But it’s just until Dec. 18th! So hurry up. Check out them blue booties (haaa, booty) in the middle! I want those so hard. And when did they start carrying Beyond Skin? You know that’s my jam!

Other things I want: this Matt and Nat wristlet! You know it’d look good on me. And I do love a wristlet. I also have my eye on (both eyes even!) these mod flats from Hearts of Darkness. My cheap mod flats totally fell apart. I need some nice ones!

Flats, bitch! Alternative title: Vegan shoes, flats edition  »

I can’t recall who, but some reader was like, “Damn, Megan Rascal! Why you always trying to make me wear high heels?! You KNOW my feet are delicate!” So here, dear reader, a flats round-up! These are totally Cally-approved. I swear to your mom.

Cally calls these Cri de Coeur crochet flats “super beautiful.”

They are sweet and pretty, right? Sorry dudes, couldn’t get a bigger picture. I think these are elegant and super summery. 

Next, these nice dress shoes from Madden Girl. Cally says, “Pretty cute I don’t love the color.” What she lacks in brevity, she makes up for in punctuation. FYI, they also come in tan, they just don’t picture them on Mooshoes.

From olsenHaus, some nice sandals.

Cally likes these a lot: “Cute!!” That’s TWO exclamation points. I can’t stress the importance of that enough. I’m pretty into these too, I might buy them so leave a size 7.5 for your homegirl.

Now some Beyond Skin jawns. The sizes available are limited on this one. Cally’s reaction: “Pretty I like the low vamp.” I say, “Hey Cally, what’s the vamp?” “The vamp is how far the shoe comes up, so a normal loafer has a higher vamp than the grey ones. A really low vamp is like a shoe that shows lots of toe cleavage.” The more you know, the more you grow!

Lastly, the BoBo Estelle from Bourgeois Boheme.

Cally approved these but she don’t love them. I think they are SHARP! Cally’s official opinion: “pretty OK.” But really, that is a high rating! There’s, “OMG I love it!” Then, “pretty OK.” Then several levels of, “uggo” that I don’t subject you to.

Flats round-up complete! Booyah!

Beyond Skin shoes RULE! Get your own pair with 10 percent off for Vegansaurus readers!  »

Now, you all know Megan Rascal loves shoes. My absolute favorite shoe brand is the vegan UK company Beyond Skin. They are nothing short of awesome: not only are their shoes beautiful and well made, but Beyond Skin is devoted to ensuring the workers who make their shoes aren’t exploited. On top of that, they make every effort to be environmentally friendly! Could you die? I could die. Super-fly shoes that neither contribute to nor result from the abuse of animals, humans or the earth? Those are all the things I care about!

Celebrities like Leona Lewis (you know you like that song) have been spotted in Beyond Skin shoes but more importantly, so have I! I own several pairs and can attest that they do in fact rule. If you are tired of cheap (or worse, expensive) vegan shoes that fall apart, these are the shoes for you. I’ve had all my pairs for years and they are still in great condition. They are also comfy! The best part about them: omnivores are ALWAYS drooling over them!* The second best part about them: they say, “genuinely not leather” on the bottom! Ha!

These shoes are not cheap. They’re kind of the same price as leather shoes. But I have good news! Beyond Skin is having a big sale now, AND Vegansaurus readers get a 10 percent discount on top of that! Just enter the code “vegansaurus10” at checkout. This offer is good for one week only—it starts tomorrow, Thursday, Jan. 6, and ends next Thursday, Jan. 13, so get on that! Currently, I’m really into the the white booties (ha, booty) pictured above. I’m also into these red kitten heels:

They are simple but dead sexy. Beyond Skin is great with the toe shape; it’s the perfect mix of rounded and pointy. I also like low heels because you know none of the boys I date have cars.

They don’t have a U.S. retailer yet but they do ship worldwide. Take note, the prices are in British pounds! That gosh-dang U.S. dollar. Gets on my last nerve. Use the vegansaurus10 code and alleviate your exchange-rate suffering a little!

*Then I’m like, “they’re vegan!” and the omnis are like, “Megan, I assumed. You don’t have to say that every time.”

Hot shoes for all sizes! Everybody get fly!  »

I was very sad yesterday when two commenters said that vegan shoe companies like Keep don’t make sizes big enough for them—this is horrible! All vegans need hot shoes! Then I remembered the tweet I read from Beyond Skin the other day: they announced that they had expanded their shoe sizes to include up to UK size 10! I totally forgot about this because I’m a US 8 so it didn’t really affect me but HOW SELFISH WAS I? I now share the good news with you!

According to Beyond Skin, a UK 10 is a US 13 is a EU 43. Damn, babygirl! Now, the only problem with Beyond Skin is that they are expensive and in British pounds—goddamn GBPs! Really though, I blame the US dollar. But so yeah, they’re on the fancy-fancy side but I own several pairs and they are well made like no joke. I’m kind of accustom to vegan shoes being cheap and falling apart but not with Beyond Skin, they are QUALITY. They aren’t made by child slaves, so that boosts the price up a bit. And they all say, “genuinely not leather” on the bottom, which doesn’t affect the price but I think it’s adorbs.

Not all their shoes come in every size but it didn’t take me long to find a few of the shoes in the larger sizes—just stick to the new collection. Check out the Ricardo boot in grey or the super-hot Maggie pictured below:

The amazing vegan sandal round-up!  »

It’s summertime bitches! Well, almost. It’s time to get some vegan sandals! Lucky for you, Megan Rascal is here to give you some superfly sandal choices after exhaustive internet research (that’s what I call shopping: “research”). Sorry there are no men’s sandals included, but that’s just because men shouldn’t wear sandals. Now, in the words of suburban Philadelphia’s own P!nk, let’s get this party started!

Here we have the Belong brown t-strap wedge sandal. This post was totally inspired by these sandals. I got them from Alternative Outfitters and for real I keep getting compliments on them. To be honest, I wasn’t that into them originally; I just wanted a pair of sandals that make me super-tall. Then I wear them and everybody is like, OMG! Even dudes—two guys I know were both like, “I like those sandals.” That is a big compliment, if you get dudes talking about your sandals. In short: you have my permission to cop my style and be awesome like me. They are even on sale for $33.11!

Next we have the espadrille sandal from Marais. Ladies! Espadrille is not a bad word! And these look very retro-cute style. You can find them at Mooshoes $96 (jeez louise, even I’ll admit that’s pricey for these—and I’m allergic to admitting things).

I know everyone is all down on crocs all the time but for real, stop fronting, these are dope! No really, I think they’re cute and I’m sure they’re super-comfortable. I been waiting to get them but I waited too long and now I can’t find them in navy in my size. Poor Megan! Life is the worst! They are called the Hanalei and they go for $54.99 over at crocs.com.

OK OK I scored big over at Endless! They have a ton of Olsen Haus and Beyond Skin shoes, and I am obsessed with both of those designers. As usual, Olsen Haus does not disappoint. This is the women’s spirit wedge and it’s the hotness! I love them. I need them. They are $219.95, so maybe I will have to live without them. I also like their women’s destiny flat, although they are $189.95 at Endless. Yowza! But check them out, I like them.

Like I said, Endless also had a nice selection of Beyond Skin shoes. They didn’t have a ton of sandals but these are pretty cute. These are the women’s marina slingback sandal. I’m not super-obsessed with these but I can imagine them looking super-cute on someone. Imagine! With a sweet 1950s dress! Lovely. These are on sale for $137.47.

For my final act, Endless also had these cute Wanted fringe sandals. I wasn’t sure at first but then I realized these are SUPER cool. I’ve kind of always been drawn to fringe, is that weird? God forbid I be weird! And these are only a lean $28.10—not too shabby!

Ok that is the vegan sandal round-up! Thanks for coming out!

Flip Winter the Bird with Your Very Own Vegan Boots!  »

Put your sandals away kiddies, winter is here! That means it’s boot season. Don’t let all the Uggs and leather boots get you down, there are plenty of vegan boot options. Where? I’ll tell you where! I’ve searched online and compiled a brief sampling of some of the superfly options available. YOU’RE WELCOME.

First up, Madden Girl Cazino tan pleather slouch boots from Alternative Outfitters. Clocking in at a lean $69, these boots are dope and I want them. Moving on!

I present, the westward bound boots for $54.99 from ModCloth. If you are concerned you can’t pull these off, STOP BEING CRAZY.

Next, we got the Narmada boot on MooShoes. For $165, these riding boots can be yours! And you can pretend you own a horse! A rescue horse you saved from a life of misery in the rodeo! It’ll be great.

Let’s move on to “booties” as they’re uncomfortably called. Vegan Chic has the Narmada boot from Neuaura for $124.99. If you don’t think these are awesome, you are crazy and I feel bad for your whole family.

On the cheaper side of booties (that’s what she said?), here is a lovely pair of boots for Go Jane: the leatherette buckled ankle boot. These bad boys are only $17.70.

For my last act, I am leaving you with an amazing pair of boots you cannot afford. Unless you can afford them in which case, let’s get married! I’m an excellent cook and I’m great in bed. These boots, named Finn (the picture is actually of an older model with a different name, but it’s the same), are made by my favorite vegan shoe company of all time, Beyond Skin. They are 100% vegan AND they are supercool about production, like no sweatshops. As it says on their site, “fret not, no humans, animals or small children were harmed in the making of our shoes.” The problem isn’t the shoes, it’s the damn U.S. dollar! It sucks! We can’t compete with the British pound! So the boots are £ 224 and according to google, today that is $368.50. Yowza. Actually, that’s not HORRIBLE. They last a long time. Anyway, buy them for me! Yay! It’ll be great.