Vegan Purses

For the past 8 years now, I have been a lacto-ovo vegetarian (meaning that I don't eat meat, but I still eat eggs and dairy). Last year I began the transition to a vegan diet (meaning that I don't eat any animal products whatsoever - no meat, no dairy, no eggs, no honey...). I would say that I spent the year about 50/50. Half the time I ate vegan, while the other half I remained lacto-ovo vegetarian. This year, I'm completely committing to being vegan - in all ways.

This means vegan clothing too. I have always linked animals with food, but for some reason the connection between my leather tennis shoes and animals was never quite as strong for me. Recently that has changed (I'll share more about that later), and now that it is all too clear to me I'm purging my house (gradually, cause I'm not loaded!) of animal products in all areas (clothes, make up, food, etc.). And this presented an interesting shopping experience for me lately as I began looking for a new purse. I was searching for a casual cross-body bag - something good for taking the kids out and about that would allow me to stash the essentials but have my hands free to wrangle munchkins. I didn't even really know where to begin looking for a vegan purse. I just knew that my standard option - Kate Spade - was no longer going to be a place to go (sniff! sniff!).

So I did what any person born after 1950 does... I googled it. And I found some really great options.

First, I want to share with you a really cool site called Alternative Outfitters. They have some great options for vegan replacements for your standard leather items - purses, belts, shoes, etc. I found two great purses on there that have now found a comfy place in my wardrobe (Alternative Outfitters also sells through Amazon.com).

The first is the Shiraleah Mercer Mud Vegan Crossbody Bag. I love that this one comes with two straps so I can carry it a multitude of different ways.

The second purse that I needed wanted was the Shiraleah Marika Forest Vegan Crossbody Bag. I thought this one was a neat color - one that I could carry with a number of different outfits (I hate having to switch purses because my purse doesn't match my outfit - who has time for that?).

I was even more surprised to find that Macy's has a whole section of faux leather handbags on their website. Who knew? There I stumbled upon a cute Nine West bag (a favorite brand of mine for years) that fit the bill. Check it out HERE to see the Hyacynth one that I ordered or click below to see the black one on Amazon.

I have to say, I was a little worried about how I was going to phase leather out of my life. Not because I'm a huge leather fan or anything, I just thought it would be difficult to find products like shoes or purses that were made of anything else. What a great surprise to find so many great options out there - and on sites like Amazon and Macy's! That being said I discovered a lot of great vegan specific stores and stores that carried a large selection of vegan items as well. You might want to check out a few of the ones below:

Alternative Outfitters

Herbivore Clothing

Moo Shoes

LuLu's

ModCloth

TOMS

Have you tried looking for vegan clothing and accessories before? If so, where do you recommend?