Where Can You Find Cheap Chic Vegan Fashion

Vegan Fashion is made from non-animal materials. It can be made from plant fibers, but also from regenerated fibers or mined materials. This direction in the clothing industry is animal friendly, so to speak. Read to learn more to find cheap chic vegan fashion.

Updated: 7/8/2022

Disclosure: There are affiliate links in this post.

What Is Vegan Fashion?

Recently, I gave a talk to a college group of women in engineering on how to dress as a female engineer. One of the young ladies asked me where to get a vegan bag that would not look cheap like most faux leather bags do. She wanted the bag to look professional. I referred her to my review from a couple of years ago of a Robert Matthew bag.

To make a long story short, her question started a discussion on vegan fashion. When you google the term you will find a definition like

Vegan Fashion encompasses clothes, shoes, bags and accessories made from non-animal sources. In other words, exclusion of wool, fur, genuine leather, silk, pearls, bones, or horn, just to name a few.

What Materials Are Used in Vegan Fashion?

It depends on what kind of item we are talking about. Some R. Riveter bag are made with sturdy canvas cotton fabric to last long. More in my R. Riveter bag review. Some vegan bags and shoes as well as faux leather consist of PU. Note that producing faux leather uses either fossil fuels or plant materials. More on the production of faux leather.

Cork and wood/bamboo often serve to create bags and baskets. Furthermore, rubber, and PU are materials for shoes soles. Typically, Old School sneakers are vegan because they have either a rubber or PU sole and sturdy canvas from cotton, hemp, or PU material. They look great with a floral dress à la Swift Taylor. More styling ideas with Old School sneakers.

Viscose, cotton, acrylics, hemp, modal, polyester, bamboo are examples of vegan fabrics. More on hemp fiber for textiles.

Where to Buy Cheap Chic Vegan Fashion in the US

Great brands for Old School fabric sneakers are Van, Converse, SUNS, Blowfish, and Keds.

The clothing suggested by the stylists at Fashom is also vegan. See my review of my Fashom Box and their services.

Jord offers great vegan bags from sustainable resources. Furthermore, they use wood from old furniture or fallen trees for their wood watches.

The Gray Grounds

Animal-Friendly Motivation

Like with a vegan diet it depends on what your reasons are for going with Vegan Fashion. When your motivation is cruelty-free resources, you may accept horn from animals that routinely shed their antlers like reindeers and caribous. You may even use Arctic musk ox qiviut fashion when it is from Alaska because here the musk ox wool (called qiviut) from shedding is collected. However, some of the musk ox are domesticized to collect the wool. Sheared sheep, and goats may feel thermally uncomfortable and may be stressed during shearing. Therefore, shopping animal-friendly when buying any kind of wool may be difficult. More on wool and woolen fabrics.

Acrylic is more cozy than wool and hence provides a more comfortable sensation on the skin.

Environmental Motivations for Vegan Fashion

For some people the preference for vegan fashion is the environment. For instance, maximizing the profits of wool from sheep, and goats might lead to overgrazing. However, overgrazing harms soils, may lead to flooding, and affects precipitation recycling. Consequently, at least, the local water cycle, and weather change. This means on the long term, the local climate (average weather over several decades, typically 30 years) changes.

Vegan Fashion Fashion Is Not Necessarily Environmentally Friendly

Be aware that vegan fabrics and faux leather can be from fossil or natural (sustainable) resources. However, the production of semi-synthetic fabrics (e.g., Modal, viscose, bamboo) releases some health-adverse contaminants into the atmosphere. More on how environment-friendly fashion may be.

Conclusions on Where to Find Cheap Vegan Fashion

In fashion like in life nothing is cheap, and a compromise is often needed. Cheap may be needed by your budget, and that is fine. Everyone can spend a dollar only once. But be aware that vegan fashion like sustainable fashion or fast fashion or slow fashion is a selling model. Someone is always paying for it. Cheap vegan clothing and accessories might be also fast fashion. This means information on what Fast Fashion is, and why it is important to avoid it, requires recognizing it. More advice on avoiding fast fashion to get a sustainable wardrobe.

Fast fashion isn’t free. Someone, somewhere is paying. – LUCY SIEGLE

Non-Vegan Look of the Day

I am wearing summer wool pants, a cotton T-shirt and a cotton denim jacket. The Chelsea’s are partly canvas, but the rest is leather. It was a humid chilly day up here in the Interior. As you see, there’s still a lot of snow left to melt. At least the driveway is free as are the parking lots and sidewalks. Thus, lighter footwear is possible. Finally. Can’t wait for the sandals to come out. Well, probably not before May. 😉

Don’t let the right outfit be a random thing. Wear the right look in every situation by looking up what to wear when in How to Dress for Success in Midlife. Buy my book now.

References

Li, Z., Mölders, N., 2008. Interaction of Impacts of Doubling CO₂ and Changing Regional Land‐cover on Evaporation, Precipitation, and Runoff at Global and Regional Scales, International Journal of Climatology: A Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 28(12), 1653-1679.

Mölders, N., 2011. Land-use and Land-cover Changes: Impact on Climate and Air Quality, Springer Science & Business Media.

Mölders, N., Rühaak, W., 2002. On the Impact of Explicitly Predicted Runoff on the Simulated Atmospheric Response to Small-scale Land-use Changes — An Integrated Modeling Approach, Atmospheric Research, 63, 3-38.

Photos of me: G. Kramm

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