Vegan Fashion Showroom Opens in Los Angeles

This month, a multi-brand vegan showroom called the Vegan Fashion Library opened in downtown Los Angeles. The new industrial loft is filled with vegan designer clothing, shoes, and accessories made from innovative materials such as apple, cactus, and pineapple leather, plant-based wool, vegan silk, and more. The concept is a pivot for annual event Vegan Fashion Week, which had to postpone in-person events due the COVID-19 pandemic. Vegan Fashion Week founder Emmanuelle Rienda developed the timely concept for Vegan Fashion Library from an urgent need to promote animal-free fashion in light of the pandemic—outbreaks of which have been identified on mink fur farms in various countries, including the Netherlands, Spain, and the United States.

“Fashion is the semiotic representation of our social and political climate, and Vegan Fashion Week is the unapologetic voice leading the charge for change in the fashion industry,” Rienda said. “We are leading positive change through conscious creativity. Let’s take this opportunity to think about the cause of the pandemic, see beyond social distancing to create new awareness and change behavior. We need to rethink the way we consume, what we consume, and how to sync sustainability with ethics.”

The showroom is available by appointment only for professional photoshoots, award shows, and film set wardrobes, and offers curbside pickups and returns. In addition to the professional showroom, Rienda launched an online vegan boutique where shoppers can find a curated selection of items made by ethical designers such as Sylven New York, Bohema, Enda, Benedetti Life, Sylth Virago, and Julien Esteves Berthier.