Aimee Hughes, a Sheffield-based designer, has launched a line of vegan-friendly denim jackets. Hughes, who is vegan, had been hand painting jackets for two years as a hobby. When she realized she couldn’t find other hand-painted clothing that used vegan and eco-friendly materials, she decided to make her business official and offer her jackets to the public.
Hughes told The Star that her brand The Good Life is for “positive minds and people that care about issues surrounding mental health and empowering one another.”
Hughes sources vintage denim jackets as canvases for her uplifting messages and designs. She uses vegan paints from Sennelier, a French brand famous for developing oil pastels for Picasso, and which offers some vegan-friendly art supplies. For packaging, The Good Life jackets are placed in reusable cotton bags and mailed in biodegradable boxes.
Each Good Life jacket takes Hughes between ten and fifteen hours to complete in her home studio. Because the jackets are vintage and painted by hand, no two are alike.
As consumers increasingly seek to align their shopping habits with their values, more vegan and eco-friendly clothing lines have sprung up and found success. BeetxBeet founder Jacky Wasserman used her experience as a graphic designer to create a popular line of vegan message T-shirts.
While vintage materials like the jackets used by The Good Life are one of the most eco-friendly clothing options, scientists and entrepreneurs continue to develop new sustainable and vegan materials. One new cruelty-free material that’s caught on is pineapple leather, also known as Pinatex, which is made from agricultural waste.
Vegan brand James & Co. recently announced a new collection of vegan leather jackets made from the pineapple by-product. And in May, Hugo Boss introduced a vegan line of men’s shoes made from pineapple leather.
As vegan fashion business expands, it has also become more accessible. The American brand Nasty Gal recently added vegan leather jackets to its “more sizes” range which includes sizes 0 – 18.
The Good Life jackets are available on Etsy in a variety of sizes depending on its current crop of vintage jean jackets. The brand also offers customizations.
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