by John Benson

Created on: December 04, 2009

As fashion activists Vaute Couture are a company that have quite literally placed veganism at the forefront of their fashion business.

Pronounced 'vote couture', the company has replaced the H of Haute with a V to represent their complete commitment to veganism and the design and creation of animal friendly fashion. Each purchase is also a 'vaute' for animal conscious and compassionate clothing.

The company is the first fashion label to focus on developing vegan alternatives to animal based clothing, but not simply functional clothing, clothing that pushes the boundaries of style and fashion, not just the ethics of fashion.

The company was born from the desire of its founder to find a stylish, chic winter coat. A straightforward task, unless, of course, you want it to be vegan. Not only vegan, but ethical from sourcing of materials through to labour and packaging. The wide gap in the market was an opportunity for innovation and entrepreneurship to take a lead.

Rather than following the patterns of other fashion labels and clothing companies, Vaute Couture's fashion develops out of the artists and designers that it uses. This collective of talent, including many young and upcoming artists, means the company constantly leads the field in style and design.

The first of the company's fashion collections was the outcome of a design competition they ran, which from 8,000 entries, designs were selected and transformed into a new range of vegan friendly fashion. From this initial collection the company seem to be blossoming and continuing to push the boundaries of commerce and ethical fashion.

The company has an online store that sells a limited range of t-shirts and coats (as well as art work). But one area the company excels in is being able to tailor make clothes for the individual. Special, one-off pieces, like cocktail dresses or wedding suits. These once in a lifetime clothes mean the individual can get a truly unique fashion experience, from a unique and one-off fashion company.

Vaute Couture have also led the way in using social media as a way to push both the vegan agenda, and also market and highlight their collections. Their Flickr page is an example of how they have embraced this technology and used it to both promote thier range as well as their business ethis. The use of blogs, social media platforms and so on has also helped lend a sense of openness and community to the company.

If Vaute Couture is a sign of how fashion and companies are evolving and developing, then we can all have confidence in our future as a society. It also means that each of us can make our own stand for animal rights and compassion and ethics by being one of the many 'Vauters' who cast a vote in favour of radically ethical companies like Vaute Couture.

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