The Stylish Vegan

Hey, Vegan Nation, The Stylish One has been away for a while traveling. Firstly, a week long business venture then off to a vacation with MSV to the Great PNW! More precisely, the Olympic Peninsula. Not much of an outdoorsy sort of lad, (you can seriously muck up some wardrobe) TSV took a deep breath and dove right in.

How can you not want to venture into the wilderness when it looks like this?, I asked myself – really.

See what I mean? And it’s all in TSV’s backyard!

But let’s back up a bit, there was some prep involved before embarking upon a vegan journey into the remote backwoods of Washington. What would I wear? What would I eat? Why were there warnings that giant elk may be on the attack? Would TSV make it out alive?

Ok, VegHeads, since that last question still sends shivers up my spine, let’s talk gear. You need some serious elemental protection out there. Protection that TSV does not possess. Sure I have my stylish Marmot rain jacket but that’s where it abruptly stops. No hiking boots, no rain resistance paints, no expensive form-fitting jackets that say North Face on the front. No nothing.

But The Stylish Vegan didn’t let those little wardrobe issues stand in my way. So for me, it was the Saucony multi-purpose athletic shoes, BR jeans and various “rugged” sweaters. And, thanks to the Vegan Gods, the weather was insanely gorgeous so none of this really was an issue. Man, but it sure could have been. Had a storm blown in, your Stylish Dandy would have been a soaking, soggy, muddy mess. I can’t even begin to tell you how happy I am that that scenario didn’t play out.

Oh, and I forgot. See up in the title where it says, “sort of”? Ok, so we stayed in a lodge. Nothing fancy; very remote. Technically, not camping per se, but for The Stylish Vegan this was a major step in the evolution of my future stylish outdoorsman persona. Some may call it whimpy, TSV calls it heroic!

Really, now that my citiness has had a tasted of this fabulousness, I’m going to get serious about gear. And no better place to start than hiking boots. Here’s one from Garmont that seems to fit the bill:

It’s even billed as the Kiowa Vegan XCR. How can TSV go wrong? Here’s what else they say, “THE FINAL WORD: Best for anyone who wants a leather-free hiking shoe that can comfortably schlep anything up to a weekend load. ” The Stylish Vegan says “sign me up, baby!”

Alright, so there we have it, TSV’s first step into serious outdoorsiness. Who knows, this could lead to me actually sleeping in a tent, cooking outside on the fire, relieving myself in the woods – what?! Whoa, wait a second, let’s take this in really, really tiny baby steps.

Ahhh…nothing like a fabulous, relaxing game on perfectly manicured links to make the heart flutter, Vegan Nation. The aroma, the mist, the, the…whatever. Ok, so TSV doesn’t really play golf. Never really got into it. The last time I attempted to swat the little white ball into the distant hole, some carnie with a big steak protruding belly came screaming out of the club house to insist that your hero remove his cart from the green. Who knew you couldn’t drive that propane powered sucker up there right next to the whole?

Oh well. Regardless, TSV is well aware that many a vegan dandy actually enjoy the game enough to play quite regularly. If you got the time and money, and more money, and then more money, then this game’s for you. But wait, what’s a VegHead to do? It’s unbelievably difficult to find animal friendly shoes for every day living. But specialty golf shoes? Is it even remotely possible?

Well, dear friends, that is why The Stylish One is here – to make your vegan, nonviolent world much easier to navigate. And golf shoes? Easy. Check out the GreenJoys line from FootJoy.

Not a bad selection and fairly stylish, as far as golf goes. Look, most of these people wear multi-pleated pants and Ashworth polos. Trust TSV on this one, you’re going to look just fine.

The Stylish Vegan found these particular shoes at, get ready for this, 3Balls.com. Yep, you heard me right, 3Balls. Of course, I’m sure they’re available at several other outlets but I just couldn’t resist the mutantly funny 3Balls.

Now, TSV is certain that there are others out there, and frankly, much to my surprise. So poke around 3Balls and see what pops up. Sounds like fun!

And onward to our VegNews Frivolous Celeb of the Day. Today, our dear friend’s at ecorazzi.com bring us Neve Campbell.

According to ecorazzi, Ms. Campbell doesn’t know if she wants to bring kids into this world. Neve says, “Part of me thinks it is not necessarily fair to bring kids into a world like that. It seems selfish to and it is something I have struggled with for the past few years.”

No, no, no, Neve. It’s not at all selfish to choose not to have kids! Actually, it’s quite the opposite. If you really want to protect our “fragile planet” from the evils of man’s over inhabitation, than your choice to not have children is not only admirable, it’s heroic. One could argue that having children is selfish since the offspring will indeed affect the planet negatively. Good job, Neve. And kudos to ecorazzi for running that.

The Stylish Vegan kicks ass once again, friends! Not only did I spend 8 hours at the Minnesota State Fair, I was actually able to eat something and, get this, ride the vomit-inducing Zipper. This vegan does not do well on any ride other than a very small ferris wheel and even that elicits wishes of mind-numbing drugs. But in a moment of misplaced courage, I stared at the monster machine and thought, “Let’s go on it!” More on that later.

I could write all day about the sad, depressing atmosphere made only happier by the consistent rain that fell all day but you can feel my disdain for this event.  The Stylish Vegan was there for a purpose – a couple of media events and hit the road. What I witnessed in between the planned interviews, I swore I would forget before the sight left my cornea and entered my brain. Easier said than done but there are times when you think that Stevie Wonder dude doesn’t have it so bad.

But this, my legions of faithful readers, is a site about fashion and as much as I want to bitch and moan and whine about the hideousness of this event from enslaving pigs to pigs wandering around stuffing their mouths with various fried cheese things, we’ll skip right the point: rain gear. Every fucking weather person in the Twin Cities forecasted a day full of steady rain. And you know what? I woke and it was foggy, rainy and depressing – or what the locals refer to as a pretty decent day. Realizing the weather prognosticators appeared to be correct and being the neurotic packer that I am, I was prepared with my Marmot rain shell.

Good idea – rain, wear your fashionable protection to keep yourself dry. Bad idea – get soaked and be miserable. Number of people in the crowd of tens of thousands with the good idea, one (The Stylish Vegan). Number of people with the bad idea, everyone else. Sometimes you have to question yourself, “am I just incredibly logical and everyone else, well, obtuse?” I mean, why would you show up for an all day outdoor event in your cutoff t-shirt and, of course, jorts/cargos when you know it’s going to rain? That deserves at least two more question marks – ??

Maybe I’m a rookie at this sort of thing and I didn’t realize that the radio and television stations that all, yes all, broadcast from this hell hole would be handing out gorgeous plastic rain ponchos with their logos emblazoned on them. Why spend money and look decent on real rain protection when you can wear a blue garbage bag with KARE11 written on it over your plump body? Makes sense to me. If your entire life is looking forward to cows having sex and stuffing obscene amounts of food into your fat belly, why would you care what you look like?

As for The Stylish Vegan – mega Stylish Vegan points for not only riding the bad-ass Zipper but looking might fine in my Marmot as a leaned over the garbage pail and puke my guts out. As I always say, “If you’re going to hurl, you might as well look good doing it.”