San Francisco Vegan Fashion Show

Who: VN Office Manager Lyndsay Orwig

What: San Francisco's 1st Vegan Fashion Show

Where: San Francisco, Calif.

When: October 2, 2010

Why: To bring hip, sustainable, and vegan fashion to the SF Bay Area

The Scoop: The fashion industry doesn't usually have the best record for being cruelty-free—go to New York's fashion week, and you're sure to find animal products of all kinds, including fur, leather, snake skin, and more. Well, things are changing, and vegan fashion shows are starting to become all the rage. Recently, there was one in Albany, NY, and just last weekend, the first Vegan Fashion show took place during the World Veg Festival Weekend in San Francisco.

The show was completely sold out

Being the Trade Show Manager of VegNews, I attended nearly the entire show, so I was happy to get a break from the booth for a short while to take in some fashion. The event was organized by Karine Brighten of Karine Brighten Events, who's fairly new to the SF Bay Area, but is making a big name in the vegan community, specializing in affordable, eco-friendly events. She told me that she has been working on the fashion show since May, and she personally made sure that each and every one of the models was vegan.

The fashion show featured designs from Vaute Couture, Pansy Maiden bags, Reco Jeans, Lion's Share Industries, Melie Bianco, Cri de Coeur, and Mission Savvy. Jennifer Miller, the founder of Mission Savvy, even sent in a video introducing the fashion show. Her designs take on themes that directly relate to animal-rights issues, such as animal captivity for the purposes of entertainment and consumerism.

One of the several lovely models in the show

The show was highly anticipated, shown by the crowd that waited outside of the auditorium doors for nearly an hour beforehand. When the show began, Karine gave a short welcome, and introduced the emcee of the night, Rory Freedman. The entire show was a major success, and very professional. Not to mention, the clothing and styles were to die for. I'm definitely looking forward to the second SF Vegan Fashion Show!