Sascha Camilli - Vegan Style Your plant-based guide to fashion + beauty + home + travel

INTRODUCTION

What is vegan fashion and why should you wear it?

I still remember the moment when I decided I wanted to work in fashion. The year was 2006, and a rather clueless 22-year-old version of me was working on the shop floor of the Florence branch of an Italian lingerie chain called Yamamay. The post-Christmas sale attracted herds of customers every day, meaning we hardly had time to breathe, let alone think about what we wanted to do with the rest of our lives. We were flogging garters and camisoles by the dozen, running up and down the stairs with heaps of bras in hand, smiling at customers and expertly gift-wrapping lacy nighties.

One day, my very strict and demanding manager asked me to change the shop window. I viewed this as an invitation to fail, since she was the only person allowed to change it and did so about ten times a day, never satisfied. She was constantly contemplating the window, always finding something wrong with the fruits of her own labour. Undeterred, I played around with colours and shapes, pairing flirty undies with frilly bras. The window was my little masterpiecebut I knew it would soon be swapped for something that was more to the managers taste.

The following morning, as we all gathered in front of the shop waiting for the manager to pull the key out of her Tods bag and open up, I cast a quick glance at the windowmy creation was still there. It stayed untouched for several days.

That was the first time I took notice of how the juxtaposition of materials, textures, colours and styles could create something that attracted peoples attention. I was hooked. I wanted more. And so, I continued exploring fashion, studying fashion, reading about fashionimmersing myself in it. I devoured fashion magazines and learned the names of fabrics, cuts, silhouettes, designers. Every month, I waited eagerly for Elle UK to reach me in Italy, where I lived at the time, and read it from cover to cover before moving on to the next fashion bible.

A writer since I was a child, I became a freelance journalist and copywriter as soon as my days in the world of satin underwear were over. After working with five national Swedish womens magazines and a few Italian ones, I became a fashion editor for one of the worlds biggest online retailers. Writing about clothes thrilled me, as what people buy is such an interesting mirror of society. What we wear reflects whats going on in the worldwhat were doing, thinking, eating, listening to and watching is reflected in our style choices. Fashion is in everything, as Coco Chanel used to say. And I was seeing it now more than ever. But, as I explored this new, all-consuming passion by working in the industry, I found that it was at odds with my lifestyle.

I went vegetarian at age 11. People around me expected this to be a phase, but, nearly two decades later, at 29, I went vegan. Ive always felt the attraction towards a cruelty-free lifestyle, and after reading Jonathan Safran Foers rather heartbreaking and very eye-opening Eating Animals , I found that I was constantly haunted by thoughts of all the animal cruelty thats inherent in society: from meat, to leather, to animal-tested household cleaning products. I couldnt find peace, as everything I touched seemed to be tainted with suffering. When I moved to London in 2012 and went vegan, it wasnt just about diet. My entire life was, slowly but surely, cleansed of cruel products, which gave my entire existence a whole new meaningIm not kidding. From the obvious health benefits of eating veganthe stomach aches Id been suffering from for years were long goneto a higher emotional connection to everything I ate and wore, veganism resonated with me in a way that nothing ever had before. My wardrobe underwent a transformation: every new pair of shoes was leather-free (this was the glorious point in my life when I discovered Converse) and I explored the world of vegan cosmetics, which was much more exciting than I had expected it to be. After a few months, I had forgotten my old drugstore staples in favour of new, all-vegan brands. As my makeup cabinet shed its old skin, so did my mentality. Veganism had transformed me on a deep levelsomething that would also become clear in my work.