vegansaurus!

Krže Studio makes fancy vegan shoes!  »

And they’re so exclusive we can’t even buy them yet! They look like they’re gonna be tough and pretty and totally expensive, but you know what? Quality vegan shoes aren’t cheap. Not to knock cheap vegan shoes! But generally shoes at a higher price point come with things like padded footbeds, a little arch support, and consideration that they have to be worn on actual human feet.

I’m super into the Keely booties above in black; I love that buckle underneath! The 100 percent lack of functionality, without even a pretense of usefulness! It’s so insouciant, right?

I also really like the Hazel slip-ons in this crinkly metallic orange.

If you’re going to wear a shoe with such a basic shape, you ought to get creative with the color and materials. You can wear boring shoes when you’re dead!

Krže Studio was created by Leila Tamar Kerze, who studied fashion design at college and worked for BCBG and Donald J. Pliner before striking out on her vegan own.

When can you buy these shoes? Where can you buy them? I have no answers for you. What I do know is that these shoes have a lot of attitude and I am glad people see a market for luxury vegan footwear. Leather is so passé.

Super important update!!!: Megan loves this pair! -MR

[images via Krzhe Studio]

Claret makes cute vegan handbags!  »

Claret only has three bags in the collection at the moment but I’m pretty into them. And the bag above is $140 so the price isn’t that bad. I love the design details. I’m excited to see what they’ll make in the future! 

Spotted: New vegan handbag line Freedom Of Animals  »

Style.com just posted about this brand new vegan company Freedom Of Animals and my dear sis-in-law sent it my way. My sis-in-law is a fashion designer and totally the arbiter of good taste so I was very stoked. Of course, the bag above is $480. So now you are probably like, “screw you, Megan Rascal, screw you!” But I got to keep you in the loop on advances in vegan fashion. 

You’ll like the company too:

Freedom Of Animals bags are sustainably sourced and consciously made. Our fabrics comply with EPA guidelines. No harsh chemicals were used in any of our products and we are 100% cruelty free.

Sound good? Sounds good! My favorite is the Melia Lia above. This pic from their site is also my favorite too:

Haaaaa. 

Fashion Loves Animals was a huge success! Let’s look at pictures!  »

I attended Farm Sanctuary’s Fashion Loves Animals event this past weekend, they were honoring one of my favorite people: Leanne of Vaute Couture! As we arrived, I was quickly given a shot of asparagus soup (pictured above) made by new celebrity chef Jay Astafa! I was completely stoked since I had missed his popup dinner. I was also stoked because the soup was delicious! 

Here’s Jay prepping behind the scenes. 

Now, on to the Vaute fashion show! 

Yes, lovely outfit. More importantly: OMG what a cute dog! And all the pups were up for adoption. No but really, the clothes were lovely. And I love these shoes by Love is Mighty. They’re made of old candy wrappers! 

Notice the Brave GentleMan kicks. 

I love this dress. There were new versions of this dress I’d seen at Vaute’s fashion week show—now it comes in lots of pretty floral patters! Leanne said they are at the Vaute Couture store now. Yay!

Beautiful picture of the back of this dress by me. 

This puppy stole the show of course. Because PUPPY!

Beautiful picture of the end of the show by me. There’s Leanne with models in tow.

Here’s a behind the scenes shot from Max Gordon Photography (all the pics not taken by me were supplied by Vaute’s lovely PR person Meredith and are by Max Gordon or Farm Sanctuary). Also check out the sweater, I love it. I need it.

And here we have the stars of the show—and really the stars of any show they attend for that matter!: Leanne, Gene Baur, Discerning Brute Joshua.

And in closing, here’s a lovely Vine video I took:

OMG I had so much fun! Thanks, Farm Sanctuary!

Buy a t-shirt, help animals! They’re dope and available this week only!  »

I totally heart these sweatshirts and tees. It’s the intersection of my love for type, clothes, and animals. The concept behind the shirts is interesting too. This site Sevenly.org runs a fundraiser each week where they sell limited edition (I think) shirts and donate $7 of each sale to the chosen charity of the week. Their goal is to raise money for the charity but also, by making things related to the charity that people can buy and wear, they raise awareness for the cause. And this week, the cause is the Humane Society! So for every shirt sold, seven bucks goes to HSUS. More importantly: you get a cool shirt! I kid, I kid. But looks like you only have until Sunday to buy so you best get on that.

CoraLlei vegan handbags are coming to Compassion Couture!  »

You know I’m in love with Irish vegan handbag company CoraLlei so I was very excited to hear that 1. their new line is out, and 2. Compassion Couture will now be selling them stateside! 

I contacted Jill from Compassion Couture for the details and she told me they will be selling three styles from the current collection: The Sofia in grey (above), the Cici in tan and the Sienna in grey. And the bags should be up by mid to late March [Update: they’ve landed!].

More about the bags:

-The material used to make the bags is Italian Vegan Leather.

- They are produced in Milan, Italy.

-The bags are water resistant and don’t absorb marks or stains and are therefore easier to clean.

-All linings for each bag are made from end of roll recycled materials from the Italian Design Houses in Venice.

I still don’t think I can afford one…but I bet the quality is amazing. So maybe I will consider it an “investment” or something? A quality bag that lasts for 10 years is certainly preferable to 10 crappy pleather environment-killing bags that dissolve in one year. Sigh. We’ll see. 

New York Fashion Week gets vegan with Vaute!  »

I had such a wonderful time at the Vaute NYC Fashion Week show! I even brought my nice lil’ point-and-shoot so I could get some sweet pictures for you guys.

Leanne says the collection was inspired by Sailor Moon so I was expecting a lot of wackiness, but it was actually rather understated. But there were a lot of fun little details like the heart cutout in the dress below and various interesting buttons and such. There was a lot of purple like the jacket above—I’m in love with purple so I’m stoked about that. Purple is just flattering on practically everyone. Or…at least on me! But yes, purple was the dominant color surrounded by variations of white and beige. 

I love the sweater below so much. I love the shoulders and sleeves and it’s hard to see but there’s this little abstract silver design on the front. So great.

There was plenty of menswear as well. And look who I saw, my friend David Raphael Hildebrand was in the show! Did you know this multi-talented author/model/Pisces is now writing pieces for The Discerning Brute? Well he is. Joshua Katcher was of course at the show as well and I believe those are a pair of his Brave GentleMan shoes on David. 

The Humane Society of New York represented at the show and brought doggie models! ADOPTABLE doggie models! Look at the handsome lady below. What a cutie!

Pup model backstage:

Here’s more purple:

The picture below is terrible but I wanted to show you the cute star cutout on the back of the purple dress. 

Leanne was obviously the woman of the hour so I wasn’t able to get that close for a pic but here she is posing with some of the models. I absolutely love the dress she wore, all red with its little heart cutout. 

The quotes they’re holding in the picture are all from Sailor Moon. I’m not sure I ever watched that show but Leanne was telling me all about it recently. Apparently the girl gets to be Sailor Moon because she rescues a stray cat from some neighborhood bullies? So AR. 

In summary, I think the first-ever vegan NYC Fashion Week show was a hit! Rescue pups, sweets from Vegan Treats, and amazing clothes! Leanne is really helping to usher us vegans into a new era, one in which omnivores envy us instead of ostracize us. Fashion may not be your thing but it is a lot of people’s thing and if veganism is going to solidify its place in mainstream culture, it’s one arena we need to tackle. I think we are well on our way! The future is bright, my friends. 

Vegan phone case+wallet made of cork!  »

I’m in love! New Orleans company Queork makes awesome accessories out of cork and has plenty of entirely vegan options. Like… this awesome phone case wallet! Don’t worry, I already bought one. I’m an aficionado of phone case wallets, they have saved my life. I used to lose my phone all the time but I haven’t lost one since I got a phone case wallet! My theory is that most people lose phones in cabs—there are studies!—but if my phone is also my wallet, I need it to pay for the cab so I totally have it in hand. Magic! I’ve been through several plastic, metal and rubber iterations but I was so jealous of my coworker’s leather wallet case. Well shucks to him because now I’ve got a cork one!

As you should well know, cork is an extremely renewable material and the company says the cork material they use feels super soft like leather (without the BLOOD and DEATH!). I’m so excited! And they’re only $39 with free shipping. Booyah!

Update!: There is a note on the Queork site that says they use beeswax to adhere the cork to the fabric backing—I contacted the maker to clarify and the cork fabric she uses to make these phone cases IS NOT made with beeswax. For other products, you’ll have to ask; but this one is a go! Long live phone case wallets!

Vegansaurus Giveaway: Win tickets to the Vaute fashion show!  »

Obvi the Vaute fashion show next Wednesday is the talk of the town. Will you be in NYC Feb. 6th and want to come to the show? We’re giving away 10 pairs of tickets! So that’s two tickets for ten winners. I’M going to be there so YOU KNOW it’s going to be the funnest!

VAUTE
by Leanne Mai-ly Hilgart

Showing of Women’s and Men’s Outerwear and Ready-to-Wear Autumn/Winter 2013

Wednesday, February 6, 2013
11:30am - 12:30pm

TO WIN: just leave a comment on here about why Vaute is awesome BEFORE SUNDAY AT NOON (EST). I will pick ten winners and notify them by Sunday night. That’s when I’ll tell you where the show is and all that jazz. Yay! Go!