Retail Therapy

Do you love to shop? Do you like to do things to help save the planet? Luckily for you, and me, we can now combine our two passions in life by purchasing items from responsible, eco-friendly, sustainable sources. If you're like me, not just any old "green" shit will do, either. I don't want to buy something that looks heinous but saves the planet. Why bother saving the planet if you're going to look like shit doing it? I don't want to live on a planet where people wear fugly shoes in the name of environmentalism. I'd rather we spend a little more on products that are higher quality, beautifully made, and relatively fashionable. Here are a few places to get started, and feel free to add any of your favorites not mentioned here in the comments.

Econscious Market:  on this website you can find many great options for whatever you might be in the market for, and a portion of each sale is donated to a charity of your choice.

ModCloth: here you can find cute vegan clothing, shoes, and accessories for affordable prices. They don't have the greatest number of sizes to offer, but if you fall within the usual S-XL spectrum, you'll find something that will fit.

Alternative Outfitters: the classic source for vegan shoes and accessories, for both men and women.

Etsy: NO FUCKING DUH. Here are a few of my favorite Etsy shops:
Homemade Soy Candles
Julep115 vegan jewelry (made from recycled materials, by a vegan!)
EmmyBean jewelry (ok so she's not vegan, but Emmy makes beautiful one-of-a-kind pieces, and she's my BFF's sister)
Fresh Words Market. paper goods made with recycled materials and printed with soy ink.

OlsenHaus: gorgeous, comfortable shoes, designed by a vegan, made with (vegan) recycled materials. Fret not, my friends: you can get them around 60% off list price on Amazon.

Cherry Berry: vegan designer handbags, which I love, but can't afford currently. But I want you all to realize that beautiful handbags need not be constructed from animal skins!

Herbivore Clothing: if you want to broadcast your environmentalism to the world, with words on your clothing, go here. You can also do that with PETA's catalog. There is nothing wrong with wearing your heart on your sleeve like this, but you don't always need everyone to know how you think meat is murder. For instance, you probably shouldn't wear this shirt while you're teaching a Latin class.

And speaking of PETA, if you want to see a comprehensive shopping guide for cruelty-free fashion, check out their Guide to Compassionate Clothing. You may be thinking, but I thought PETA wanted women to be naked all the time? This, sadly, is not true. They only do the naked stuff for the sake of publicity; too many people do not realize how much good they do for animals outside those campaigns.

If you want sweaters without animal products (hello, wool, cashmere, angora, mohair, alpaca, etc) try somewhere like Old Navy, which is affordable although their manufacturing processes might be questionable. It's hard to find a compromise between animal rights and human rights, but usually if a retailer is emphasizing animal rights, the human rights fall in line. Shit, if you can find a place that has cute, cotton sweaters and practices eco-friendly production, and does not have sweatshops, holla at your girl.

For outerwear, go with Patagonia. They use recycled and recyclable materials with a sustainable manufacturing process. Sure their clothes are a bit more expensive than like North Face, but come on. Fuck the North Face. Those assholes let the quality slip once they got popular about 8-10 yrs ago. Patagonia is the way to go for saving the planet and staying warm and dry.

Thrift stores: also, fucking duh. Find one near you and go nuts. If you must have leather and wool, at least buy it second-hand!

Zappos: yes, friends, your favorite shoe store can help you save the planet. Simply choose brands that are eco-friendly, like Stella McCartney for Adidas, Vans, KEEN, Simple, Chaco, Merrell, even Birkenstock and Puma. OK so some of these shoes are cuter than others, and some are downright fug. But it can't hurt to do a quick search for "vegan" or "eco-friendly" and see what's in season. Often a major brand, like saucony or adidas, will have one or two styles that are made for people like us, from recycled earth-friendly materials. And it's pretty easy to find vegan-friendly running/athletic shoes, as most of those are made of synthetic materials for the sake of ventilation and being light-weight.

And obviously VeganStore.com and VeganEssentials.com. duh.

And last but certainly not least: VEGAN CHOCOLATE. Buy it from this Brooklyn-based shop and all the net profits go to animal rescue organizations! You're helping homeless animals by feeding your addiction!

If you're not sure why you can't be an environmentalist if you still eat meat, start by looking at this article and this one too and maybe even this one. Even if you don't care about animal rights, you should at least care about the devastating effects of factory farming on the environment. After all, if the planet goes to shit, where are you going to keep your stuff?