TPG: Any other places offer high quality
sustainable clothing?
TPG: Where are some places that people can
buy high quality sustainable menswear?
CS: You mentioned Doc Martens and that used
to be pretty much the only vegan leather shoe
out there for men but now we are seeing an
array of vegan leather shoes. They usually take
the form of micro-fiber and polyurethane.
Micro-fiber, I would say, is the best because it
really simulates the structure of natural leather.
It is widely used now by Brave Gentleman
(bravegentleman.com) who also offers great
vegan wool suits made from what they call
“future wool.” (The company) is trying to get
people to think about this moving toward the
future and starting to embrace animal-free
fabrics. They make 100% recyclable
cotton-poly suits, which are fully lined with
what’s called “future silk.” It is a very fine
micro-fiber made from recycled plastic bottles.
CS: I saw that Crane Brothers in Australia
(www.crane-brothers.com) offers a lot of vegan
options including custom fitting. Frank & Oak
in Toronto (www.frankandoak.com) have many
tensile blends. Tensile is more environmentally
friendly than wool since it is made from
eucalyptus, sustainably grown on land that is
unsuitable for food crops. These trees are also
grown with minimal water using sustainable
foresting methods. Some other companies I
recommend include Glass House Shirtmakers
(www.glasshouseshirtmakers.com), they make
great button-downs, handkerchiefs, and scarves
from tensile and hemp.
TPG: How about footwear?
CS: For shoes, there is the Moo Shoes website
(www.mooshoes.com) which is a good one-stop
shop for all vegan men’s shoes. Novacas
(www.novacs.com), Spanish for “no cow,” makes
higher-end vegan footwear that are 100% PVC
free. Some people say that PVC is bad for the
environment because it uses fossil fuels but
what a lot of vegan designer today, in a effort to
be a environmentally friendly as possible, are
saying they won’t use PVC material because it
has gotten such a bad rap over the past few
years. They are using more micro-fibers and
more eco-friendly recycled product-based
polyurethane.
PG: Don’t those “recycled” suits look terrible?
CS: I was recently looking for a vegan suit for a
celebrity who is doing something with us and
went to Topman in Los Angeles. It was very
hard for me to tell the difference between the
wool suits, the wool-blend suits, and the tensile
linen ones they sell. It is very similar feel like
wool by using a specific kind of fiber. They do a
great job of making them look great. You hear
about suits that are poly-based looking kind of
cheap or cotton suits looking like something
you’d wear yachting, and not a suit you’d wear
to the office, but I think it is changing.
20
A Gentleman Talks with Christina Sewell