VEGAN PLANT BASED HANDBAGS AND SHOES? YES PLEASE!
By: Hillary LeBlanc
LaBante London is a cruelty-free Vegan Plant based leather handbag and shoe brand conceptualized by Vanita Badlani. What started as a labour of love symbolizing her care for animals, fashion and the wider planet, Badlani has championed a ‘Fashion With Respect’ movement, a philosophy that LaBante London is based on.
As a teen, Badlani spent many hours in her uncle’s fashion company watching the creation of beautiful garments for big name fashion brands and therein started her love of fashion.
Badlani lived in Chicago and New York working for JP Morgan but her passion for vegetarianism and fashion continued to call to her. On her website, Badlani shares “I believed there was a gap in the fashion industry to make high quality products that were not only beautiful and vied for, but were also cruelty free and sustainable at the same time being accessible”.
While living in the United States and working in investment banking, Badlani notes “During this time, something that would constantly play on my mind was finding a handbag that could fit everything I take to work but did not harm the environment or sacrifice style. This encouraged me to set up something where the brand would define the product. I wanted to create a highly crafted item made with beautiful materials that would last a long time. I started with handbags and then slowly brought in wallets, jewellery, crossbody bags and backpacks”. Badlani shares that LaBante London is launching a new shoe line which they are very excited about which we are very excited about.
In 2009 Badlani founded LaBante London and grew “from strength to strength as we received so much positive feedback and love from vegans, vegetarians, animal lovers and fashionistas all over the world. As we continued to expand, we had the pleasure of meeting fashion buyers who understood that change was coming and that the future was about ethics and sustainability”.
‘Fashion With Respect’ is part of LaBante London’s philosophy and Badlani explains “it effectively means that the accessories we create will always meet high sustainable and ethical standards. This way, our products do not harm the environment or any people in the process. We believe fashion shouldn't have to cost the planet; this is why we make products that come from recycled materials and can be further recycled and even biodegrade at the end of their life, promoting circularity. It also means giving back to the planet and the fundamental charities that align with our ethos, such as Peta”.
Badlani feels that being transparent is crucial to her brand’s philosophy and true environmentalism. She shares that, “Putting an end to greenwashing has always been one of our core values, long before it was ‘trendy’ to be an advocate for it. There is a tendency for brands to claim that they are ethical and do not promote greenwashing, but then it comes to light that they have unethical practices. It has always been important for us to be transparent, and be able to show this to our customers”. On the Labante London website, they share that they have removed 48,113,298 KG of CO2, planted 1,402,560 trees, recycled 10,225,696 plastic bottles and have created 44,818 jobs!
Through LaBante London, Badlani also supports various charities. She tells us that the core belief of Fashion With Respect has also included philanthropy and donating to charity, “To date, we have supported the following charities: PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), St. John’s Hospice, Woodstock Farm Sanctuary, MacMillan Cancer Support and The Yorkshire Wildlife Park. We donate at least 10% of our profits to these charities and plant ten trees for every item sold, making the purchase carbon-negative for our customers”.
On the LaBante London website, Badlani also features blogs that explore in depth the issues close to the founders heart. “The blogs on our website are a way for us to comment on the bigger issues that we as a brand aim to tackle. For example, our in-house writer has created posts looking at circular fashion in relation to climate change, how our brand is fixing the fashion bill and explaining to our readers exactly what apple leather is and how our brand uses it in our products. Our blogs are another way for our brand to be transparent with our customers; they can read about the issues that we believe in and advocate for”.