Vegan shoes and bags

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Angie is co-founder of YLF and its resident fashion stylist.

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Outfits Ensembles Trends Advice

Vegan shoes and bags

— by Angie

on August 15, 2007

Gone are the days of non-leather shoes and handbags being unstylish, unfashionable and uncomfortable. In fact, these days some of my favorite shoes and bags are plastic. With sites like Ragazzi Vegan, Vegan Unlimited, Vegetarian Shoes and Bags and Luna Boston, there are options to suit all fashion personas. Non-leather items have the added advantage of being cheaper and more lightweight. Large leather handbags in particular can weigh you down, which makes the vegan choice super practical. It’s fabulous that animal friendly can be fashion forward and trendy.

Wonderful shoes and bags from various online vegan sites. Luna Boston is a dash more pricey, but certainly a cut above the rest.

Accessories · Footwear

15 comments · Add a comment

Maya

This might be my favorite post yet! I stopped wearing most leather five years ago when I gave up meat, but since my feet were in such bad shape I continued to wear leather shoes as synthetics never seemed to stretch enough to accommodate my extra-wide foot. Lately I have been on the lookout for a nice bag with no luck, but seeing these options has really perked me up. Thanks for the info!

August 15, 2007 at 9:51 am

Angie

(website)

You are welcome! Let us know what you find and if you come across other fab vegan sites, we’d love that you share that with us too.

August 15, 2007 at 11:05 am

Danica

(website)

Matt & Nat has vegan bags that are pretty good. They even have one called the Angie.

August 15, 2007 at 12:08 pm

Lannie

Great post! I might throw in a recommendation of Matt & Nat, out of Montreal. I’ve been using a yellow bag of theirs all spring/summer and have received a ton of compliments. Here is their website:

http://www.mattandnat.com

August 15, 2007 at 1:15 pm

Angie

(website)

Thanks Danica and Lannie. I’ve just had a look at the Matt & Nat site and their items look wonderful. And I rather fancy the “Angie” bag!

August 15, 2007 at 8:33 pm

Maya

I was also going to echo what Lannie and Danica said about Matt & Nat. As for shoes, Novacas is great. There is a store called Moo Shoes that sells both brands (and many more) at their store in NYC and on their website (mooshoes.com).

Melie Bianco, Kathy Van Zeeland, and Kenzie also use faux leather in their handbags. I’m not personally drawn to them, but someone else might be. Kenzie does make fab shoes and clothes though!

As for top notch designers, I recently discovered that Stella McCartney makes a lot of vegan bags, but they will still cost more than a pretty penny. I have also seen some Orla Kiely, Isabella Fiore, and Mary Francis bags that don’t use leather.

I ended up getting the vegan Prada bag. It looks so beautiful on screen and yet it’s so cheap. I hope it’s not too good to be true and it looks just as good in person!

August 15, 2007 at 10:32 pm

Stephanie

While I completely understand why some people choose non-leather accessories, I would warn folks against buying vinyl products as a substitute. The manufacture of vinyl, or Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) is highly toxic. (You can read more about it here: http://www.myhouseisyourhouse.org)

Basically, the development and then the burning of PVC releases dioxin, which causes:

• Cancer
• Endometriosis
• Neurological damage
• Immune system damage
• Respiratory problems
• Liver and kidney failure
• Birth defects

In short, the stuff is seriously bad for one’s health and the environment. And it’s everywhere, mostly in homebuilding materials, but in fashion accessories as well.

When shopping for non-leather goods for humanitarian reasons, in mind that just because it’s non-leather, doesn’t mean it’s socially-conscience.

August 16, 2007 at 8:32 pm

Maya

Stephanie-

I also thought about that at one point (when I stopped eating meat but continued wearing leather), but as it turns out the process of tanning leather has virtually the same consequences.

You do raise a good point though. Perhaps canvas, microfiber, and other fabrics are the best way to go.

August 16, 2007 at 9:35 pm

Chris

(website)

By way of update:
Vegetarian Shoes and Bags have a new website design – making it easier to find more great vegan shoes and vegan handbags.

Cheers

November 9, 2007 at 9:35 am

Mike

I am trying to find the Cleo Roos Hobo Handbag in the light blue as pictured for my wife and can’t seem to find it. Any suggestions?

THANKS!

December 31, 2007 at 10:03 am

Kiki

I can’t find that bag either!! Does anyone know where to get it?

March 4, 2008 at 10:39 am

Chantal

(website)

That bag can be found on VeganUnlimited’s website if you can access it. I went to shopzilla.com and it came up, but then when you try to go to that individual website it never works. Good luck.

March 9, 2008 at 6:31 am

Leather shoes

(website)

Its good to have something to choose other than leather. But are they eco-friendly?

September 21, 2009 at 2:42 am

Summer 2009 update: cobalt tunic dress

(website)

[…] clamdiggers: I’ve taken off the pearls, added a floral pin, silver flats and a vegan tote. Dressed down, a little more casual but just as pulled […]

June 10, 2010 at 4:00 pm

quail

Active Member

Thank you so much for the variety of links, Angie! I’ve been a vegan for almost two years and have been wearing my leather shoes until they die, which unfortunately is just about now in time for the cold weather. I checked RagazziVegan.com and found attractive (!) flats (!) in my size (!!). Thanks to you my feet will be safely shod this winter.

Matt & Nat is also a great company – I ran into them when all I came across was their Japanese Paper-textured bags, which I purchased but returned because I didn’t like the way it looked in person. However, I just went to their actual website and found much, much more – and just got a 10% discount on Matt & Nat’s sale price through another site.

August 23, 2010 at 7:50 pm

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