Vanita: Anything in the world has dark and light, right? We know that for a fact. There’s good, there’s positive and there’s negative to any situations. I think if you just focus in on the positive and keep very systematically removing the negative, you focus in on what your bigger goal is. And I as a person tend to not look left or right. I tend to be one of those blinker kind of people and I keep going. And that enables me to keep a very positive mindset. It’s hard sometimes. You know, I am not saying that it’s perfect. There are times when you’re questioning the reason why you’re still running a sustainable brand, when brands like Timu and Sheen are ipo. But then you know, don’t you? There is purpose and there’s a goal. So it doesn’t matter what’s happening.

Vanita: You just keep looking at your goal because then you’ll achieve it.

Stacy: Welcome, welcome. I’m really excited today to get to have a conversation around fashion sustainability. We’re going to get to talk about entrepreneurship for social good and we get to do it with a good friend of mine and somebody I really admire, somebody who is doing really good work in the world. So let me introduce you to this week’s guest. Vanita Padlani is a sustainability warrior and impact entrepreneur leading Labonte London, a luxury vegan accessories brand dedicated to ethical fashion and environmental stewardship. She passionately drives change in the fashion industry through sustainable innovation and the power of conscious consumerism. Welcome Vanita. I’m so excited to get to talk to you today.

Vanita: Thank you, Stacy, for having me on your podcast. I think it’s amazing. I really value your friendship. I really appreciate being invited here today. Thank you so much.

Stacy: When I met you, I was like instantly drawn to you. First of all, when, when we connected, I just thought she is amazing and I need to be friends with her. But also because I have a real interest in the work that you do in the world. When we met I was very, wearing vegan heels and I remember hearing you talk about your vegan fashion brand and I had just kind of started to get into vegan fashion. It was, I had, I think I had maybe been buying vegan shoes and bags for a couple of years at that point, but I was learning about the different brands and how to buy.

Stacy: So before we even jump in, I’d love for you to just for anybody that’s maybe not sure what defines vegan accessories, Handbags, shoes, What does that mean and how do you think about it as somebody who owns, who founded a vegan fashion brand is a fantastic question.

Vanita: Because the word vegan fashion in today’s DNA just quite abused. So I think it’s very important to define that. So vegan fashion is anything which is in harmony with the planet and works with respect to all species. It’s cruelty free. So there are no animal derived products used in making that item. And it is sustainable, which means that the, it works in sync with the planet rather than in friction with it. That’s how I define vegan fashion.

Stacy: I love that definition. And it got me thinking, you know, when I first started shopping, quote, unquote, shopping vegan and I was learning about it, a lot of times I would actually end up just having to buy really cheap shoes at like a cheap shoe store because I couldn’t find anywhere that had not like shoes without animal products. That was just my solve, you know, I didn’t know where to get it. Today it’s much different landscape than it was when I first started buying vegan accessories. But I love the way that you define that. I think it sets a standard for how we actually consume or buy vegan fashion. So I love that.

Stacy: Let’s start with your early story because you’ve had a couple of key moments in your life around your love of fashion, which I know was in your teens you started developing that and then your interest in vegetarianism and sustainability. Can you give us a little bit of your personal background that led you into this passion that you have for sustainable vegan fashion?

Vanita: Absolutely. So I, I will back up a few more than a few years. I was a teenager, my family worked in the garments business. We had factories all across the globe. So I would work in My uncle’s head office in Hong Kong for all my summer holidays, right from seventh grade, all the way going to a university. So what I saw firsthand was beautiful fashion, which made me fall in love with it. But at the same time, I saw the other side to it, which was a whole lot of waste. So from a very young age, I knew that a, I’m going to be in fashion, I’m going to work in it, and I’m going to make a huge impact by ensuring that the sustainability element or the waist element is kill. So that was almost a teenage passion.

Vanita: And, you know, today, after it’s been so many years and I’ve been really working in sustainable fashion, it just. It gives me purpose, it gives me joy, and it’s something I’m looking to expand on a much larger scale. So when I finally did set up Labante. Labante comes from Sanskrit, and it means to truly achieve. It means it’s more about giving back to the planet than what we take from it. So it’s about the circle of life. And I think that was important to have a brand name which really, the brand name and the brand are sort of interconnected, and the DNA of the brand comprises of the word labante.

Stacy: I love that. It’s just so interesting because I’ve known you for a few years now, but these are components of your backstory and your mission and your work that I’ve never learned before. So it’s really cool to get to learn this about you. So I know that you had this interest in fashion and this awareness around the waist, which now I feel is much more known how much waste the fashion industry creates.

Vanita: Yeah.

Stacy: Where did the vegan elements of your. Of your fashion brand come from?

Vanita: Yeah, that’s a great story, Stacy. So when I was 18 years old, I studied india and I had to pass a wet market on the way to university. A wet market is basically where a place where they. They’re full of live butcher shops. So they have caged animals, and on top of that, there are counters where, you know, God forbid, when I was passing by one of these butcher shops, a customer came in. The butcher would sort of take his hand, put it inside the cage to grab one bird, in this case chicken, and there would be a unanimous shrieking, like squawk, which would fill the market. And at that point, I would be pressing down on my ears and walking like this. But the sights and the sounds, the smells were too much for me. They were overpowering.

Vanita: And I used to love eating chicken. I came From a non vegetarian family to overnight dropping it, because I just couldn’t take that anymore. So I knew that the vegetarian element or the cruelty free element was very important for me because I was quite young. But I could sense the fear and I could sense the anguish that the animals were feeling at that time. And this was, you know, just a chicken. But to see higher species animals being butchered was too much for me. So it was a very transformative experience for me at a very young age, which actually turned me vegetarian overnight.

Stacy: Wow. Yeah, I can see that in my mind’s eye as you describe it. And I had a, a similar, not quite what you’re describing, a similar experience here in Portugal where I was taking my kids to the park. And it’s just we’re in a very rural area and there’s a lot of farms around and things like that. And, and this guy just came out with a chicken and like put its head in a bag and just killed it like right there. And, and when you witness that, you know that it’s hard to really put into words what that is like to witness animal actually dying. And I think it says a lot about your character that extended into your eating habits and also your business that you run today.

Stacy: And I love, I mean, just knowing you for these years, I also know how passionate you are about this because we’ve had many conversations over the years about vegetarianism. I would love to talk a little bit about your. I know we learned about the background of Labonte’s name and your kind of purpose behind that. Tell us a little bit about how your mission in Labante extends from how you run lead the company all the way to the bags that you produce and that customers get to carry around. And I’m sure you get to spot around London and beyond.

Vanita: Yeah, that it’s really good story. So before we go into, you know, let’s talk about the mission first. So I think the mission is very important in any business. So in our cases for Labante, London’s mission is to be world’s leading socially responsible, sustainable, cruelty free brand. What that translates into is that the first thing what we would do is create products that are in sync with the planet, which are in harmony with the planet, and to serve people with beautiful, sustainable items that do not create any friction in the world. So when they enjoy Labante London product, they know without a doubt that they’re not harming the planet, which I think is something quite important, especially in the fashion industry. The third part of that is to be a thought and execution leader in sustainable innovation.

Vanita: So to be on the forefront of innovation rather than the far side of it. And another part of it is also to really spread the message of sustainability across the world. Especially in the day and age like today, where you have fast fashion brands like Shein Timo, these are valued at $66 billion companies, they have the fastest IPOs. It’s crazy the amount of fast fashion that’s ruling the world. So in this kind of environment, I feel that the role of a brand like Lavantee London is far more important than it even used to be, especially in this day and age. And then of course, the other element of our mission is to give back to the planet. So in terms of planting trees or supporting charitable organizations which do good on those world. So that really is our mission.

Vanita: Now this translates to every part of the process in terms of product. So right from design to sampling to production, all of these items or all of these steps are looked at. So right in design, we look at what are the materials that we would use, what would be the factory that we would use for that, what is the process of transporting those materials to the UK or the US and how will the packaging look? Are those biodegradable? So all our packaging is completely biodegradable. We don’t use virgin plastic at all. We’re pledged plastic free. What that means is we don’t use any of those nasty materials. Pvc, we’ve never used a lot of vegan fashion brands talk about and you know, use pvc. That just doesn’t happen with us.

Vanita: We look at sustainable innovations and where we can use our innovation to create new products. So there is a. Every element of the mission then feeds into the product that we create or even our swing tags, if you put them into a little potted plant and water it grows into a little mint plant now. And I’m very proud about it. Because that level of attention to detail is not what brands do. Everything is about profit, everything is about ro. But we go above and beyond and that’s important, especially when the mission is so strong. The product has to be in sync with that.
Stacy: How have you balanced that as a business owner? Obviously as a business owner you want to grow your brand, you want to reach more customers, especially because your mission is so important. It’s not just about the bag that somebody buys or, you know, the passport, wallet or the shoe. It’s about your mission in the world and bringing these sustainable products to their doorstep. How do you balance the cost of production that it takes to have that mission extending all the way through the whole cycle of a product to market and actually even delivery, including those tags with I’m sure big aspirations and growth goals, where I’m sure there’s some tension there. How have you navigated that?

Vanita: You’re absolutely right, Stacy. I think the challenges in the business have been quite a bit, especially with the rising costs of materials. So that is a huge challenge. There’s three elements to this. Let’s talk about that. There is one which is pricing. There is the greenwashing in the industry which really is so rampant. And then the third part is the balance between the cost and profitability is the production part that you mentioned. So if we look at it in three buckets, the first is we had the pricing element. There has been a huge amount of innovation in sustainability. But what that means is that the newer materials that are available are much more expensive than the traditional materials which were available. It is a very hard balance to create beautiful products and still keep them accessible for the normal consumer. It has made.

Vanita: It has, it has been hard. I am going to be very transparent about that. So when we introduce new products, we tend to do it in new innovations. We introduce them in smaller products which we then test in the market. So we, I was telling you that before we started today we have these beautiful travel wallets and travel gifting items all made sustainably with 100% plant based leather. And then that’s a balance. On the other element, we have more expensive bags. But creating a strategy for positioning and still keeping it accessible has been the hard part. But to counter that, what we’re looking at doing is sort of scaling up. Because when we look at the landscape, a lot of the brands who will call themselves luxury brands in our space are using materials like pu, which is not that great for the planet.

Vanita: While our materials are so much higher because we’re using biodegradable leathers and we’re using plant based leather, it’s so much higher. But we are going to have to increase our prices. And that’s something that we’ve had internal reviews on and looking at a strategic repositioning in 2025. So that’s one element. The second element is the supply chain was very badly disrupted during the pandemic. What that meant is that most factories who were producing leather accessories turned into PPE factories and start producing massive PPE equipment. After the pandemic. They sort of moved back, but that actually allowed us a very good window of moving away from the Far east into India and Portugal where there is such a higher level of transparency with the ethics. Our workers take Saturdays and Sundays off, they get maternity wages.

Vanita: They, you know, they have a really good insurance policy if something were to go wrong. The level of transparency and the ethics that I get from our newer suppliers is just so much different and higher than I ever experienced in the Far East. So something for me has been a very positive move. So we have looked at those elements. So the third element is the greenwashing. Now the amount of green washing that has just substantially increased because vegan leather is from a bus term. So you have everybody from luxury brands like Gucci claiming that they’ve introduced vegan handbags, but you walk into their store and the store systems have no idea, oh, that they need to vegan bag, to all, you know, to mass scale brands like Calvin Klein who say this is vegan leather.

Vanita:Oh, because they just made their PU option, their fake option, their fake leather option, the vegan option. How convenient is that? Nobody has any idea whether actually the glues in that were cruelty free or not because a lot of the glues use animal fat. Nobody knows of what those are those dyes contained. So there is so much greenwashing that for brands like who were the original or the OG vegan brands, they’ve had to compete against these big boys who are bringing huge pockets. And really the marketplaces become changed because Google Ads and everything have become so much more expensive because these guys are bidding on the key terms for the vegan leather brands. So a lot of vegan leather brands have actually gone under or shut shop.

Vanita: A lot of my friends have had to close their businesses because they can no longer compete in a market where these large guys with their big pockets are really trying to eliminate competition. There was a case where it was one vegan brand who was sued by a leather consortium in Germany and she fought that and she won just because she used the word leather. And they said, oh, it needs to be used only for animal skin. How can you use it for anything else? And she won that. But the amount of financial pressure that must have put her under is not fair.

Vanita: And a lot of people talk about leather being the sustainable option, but let me tell you, there’s about for every kilogram of plant based leather, it’s two kilos of carbon dioxide in the plant which is goes into the planet versus 27 kilos in leather. And they dye it with so much chromium and so many chemicals, it doesn’t biodegrade for Thousands of years it’s sitting in the landfill. So what natural leather are people talking about? It’s just leather consortiums who have such amazing contacts with politicians and regulators. And it’s really like a whole greenwash story. Like you remember the gut milk campaign in the US in the 70s. It’s similar because these are just wealthy consortiums which just have money to burn.

Stacy: So many things about those three points really resonated with me. I think a layer that I will add to that I’m thinking about in relation to pricing and greenwashing is that those larger brands can also price their items less. And I think that the underpinning of all of that is a consumerist mindset where it’s like we need more, more, rather than making really thoughtful minimal purchasing decisions. You know, I personally, I would rather have an, a nice bag that I really love, that I know is going to last, you know, rather than five, that like in equal spending, like I could maybe spend and get that many. I just prefer to have less items in my life. But that is not the mindset that most of us have been raised in.

Vanita: Absolutely. And that there’s proof in that. Right. You know, you have brand like Shein, which is valued at 66 billion. It’s got one of the fastest IPOs. In nine months it went into IPO. I think that’s ridiculous. That’s nearly one in seven people on the planet wearing fast fashion. And that’s not even possible because most of the, you know, a lot large percentage of population in the world is in poverty or it’s just so much higher the numbers of fast fashion. And I think social media has actually contributed to the growth of fast fashion. Just because you need to look different in every video you post. There’s a lot of pressure on the youngsters nowadays to look, give a certain image, which is not necessarily the best for the planet or for their mental health.

Stacy: It’s funny because literally as I was getting ready today, I put on this shirt and I was like, I wonder how many of my podcast episodes I have worn this shirt in. Because I keep a very minimal wardrobe and I rather have nice quality, less nice quality pieces than to have a lot of stuff. So that made me chuckle. As you said. That’s. It’s so true. I want to talk about how to buy good vegan stuff because one of the big challenges that I faced, I mean still face when I’m looking at various ethical, sustainable vegan products is knowing that it’s going to be good quality. And I’ll give an example of something that happened to me recently. I will not name the brand really cool, it seems like such a cool brand.

Stacy: But I bought some shoes, they were $180, I think US somewhere around that. So they weren’t crazy expensive, but they were not cheap shoes. Right. So in my mind, when I buy like sneaker type shoes at that price point, I would expect them to last for a while. And I think the, it wasn’t, I don’t think I had worn them more than maybe 10 to 12 times. When I was putting them on, they ripped like the seam ripped on the shoe. I was just, I wasn’t pulling. I just gently, you know, did the normal thing where you kind of like hold the back of your shoe and slide your foot in. Laces were undone. It wasn’t like I tugged or anything, but it ripped.

Stacy: And that has not been the first time that I’ve had that experience with vegan products where they look really beautiful or the company has a really nice mission, but when you actually purchase the product and use the product, it falls apart actually pretty fast and doesn’t really have as much life in it. And then on the other side, there’s amazing companies like yours that follow that mission and are also good quality products that are going to last you. So as consumers, maybe somebody is listening to this and maybe they know a little bit about the problems going on in fast fashion, but maybe this episode has enlightened them a little more and they like to start making some different purchasing choices.

Stacy: How can somebody be a discerning consumer if they want to buy sustainably, they want to buy vegan, they want to make like vote with their wallet with the purchases that they make.

Vanita: I think that’s a great question, Stacy, and unfortunately there is not an amazing answer. There is not enough regulation in the fashion industry to really stop or prevent brands from greenwashing. Unfortunately, the onus lies on the consumer to do their research, which means A checking labels, B understanding what materials the brands are using. So a lot of vegan brands, people who call themselves vegan fashion are using PU or pvc. That’s not great for the planet. If you are looking at what materials they’re using and what, where are they producing? I think that’s a very important element of that. If you’re producing in more in countries which value transparency and ethics, that’s usually better in terms of the sustainability element. But what are the. Also the, the background of the brand, what is the background of the brand? What is the purpose?

Vanita: And you know, a lot of our customers tell us that they do research and when they start peeling the layers, a lot of misinformation comes out. But unfortunately, I wish there was a straightforward answer, but really it’s up to the brand, up to the consumer to do the research, which is, you know, checking the website, looking at factories of where the production is and what materials they use. That’s really what’s important. You know, if you think about it, if a brand is calling themselves vegan, there are a couple of cruelty free brands, but then they’re using some sort of leather at the background. It happens. And it’s, we’ve noticed in our research there are brands which call themselves leather or they call them so slow fashion.

Vanita: And then they go ahead and they do a collaboration with a major fast fashion brand like and Zara, and we’re like, okay then. So there’s a lot of peeling the layers involved, unfortunately.

Stacy: Yeah. It’s interesting because I personally find that’s true across almost every product. Right. So at the moment I am trying to find a good skincare brand and I, I’ve spent so much time looking at different brands and every single time when I go, you know, I always go, I read their founding story, I go and I read their environmental impact statement that they usually have, I’ll read their ingredients statement. There’s always something when I get into the research that I’m like, dang it, I thought this was going to be the one that I could order and like. But then when you find one, you just keep buying from them.

Stacy: This is my experience because I know, you know, I’ve done the research already and I’m going to be very loyal to that brand rather than, I don’t want to go spend another several hours which, by the way, I’m still looking for a good skincare brand. So anybody listening has a recommendation. I’m all ears. But it’s tough.
Vanita: It is tough. We’ve actually had new customers who sort of tried our brand, loved it, but just for the heck of a, tried a couple of other brands that come back to us. Like, we hear these stories all the time and there are a lot of consumers who are like, you know, what if, even if a mistake happens in shipping or whatever, they’re like, no, you know, you were Labante London, we’ve been with you. It doesn’t matter, not your fault. Like, those are the kind of feedback that our customer service receives. I really makes me really happy Just sort of, you know, it clicks and then you’re like, okay, it’s all worth it. It’s all worth it. There’ll be more people who sort of, you know, are looking at embracing a sustainable, cruelty free lifestyle. And I think that’s awesome because you need it.

Vanita: I mean, just with the global warming and what’s happening on the planet, it’s not pretty. So it’s very important for consumers to stand by brands who are actually doing the right thing because they’re very few and far in between left.

Stacy: So it’s interesting, you know, as you were mentioning about, you know, how bad things are out there and how these choices do matter, it made me think about why we ended up scheduling this conversation today to begin with, which was a conversation that we had around our, both of us really being oriented in our entrepreneurship toward social good. And that got me thinking about, you know, when you’re working in an industry where you are witnessing a lot of bad and a lot of things that are not right or harm that’s being done by other companies that are in your space, how do you stay, I don’t know, positive and kind of mission oriented and not let that side of things get you down?

Vanita: I think there’s, I think anything in the world has dark and light, right? We know that for a fact. There’s good, there’s positive and there’s negative to any situations. I think if you just focus in on the positive and keep very systematically removing the negative, you focus in on what your bigger goal is. And I as a person tend to not look left or right. I tend to be one of those blinker kind of people and I keep going. And that enables me to keep a very positive mindset and systematically scaling it up, which obviously probably it’s hard sometimes. You know, I am not saying that it’s perfect. There are times when you’re questioning the reason why you’re still running a sustainable brand when brands like Timu and Sheen are ipoa. But then, you know, don’t you, there is purpose and there’s a goal.

Vanita: So it doesn’t matter what’s happening. You just keep looking at your goal because then you’ll achieve it. If you don’t and you get sidetracked, then you’re sure to not get there as quick, quick enough.

Stacy: I love that so much. And I think also, you know, a lot of our, when you’re in with other entrepreneurs, there’s a lot of focus on grow, grow. Revenue, revenue. But I think that There is a lot of in that journey, that balance. When you do have a social mission a lot in alignment with your business, it necessitates thinking about things a little bit differently because you do have to bring in a layer of it’s like outside of the numbers, outside of the growth goals. You also have to be considering things that are just as important or more important actually than the bottom line as you are, as you’re growing. I mean it’s just a whole other layer to business building and brand building.

Vanita: Yes, absolutely right. You’re absolutely right.

Stacy: Question for you on your products because I know sometimes when you know when you get recommended a podcast episode or podcast and I always say, okay, what episode should I listen to start with? So if somebody is interested in your brand, I have two questions. One is what product are you most excited about at the moment? And two, what’s like your gateway product that people like tends to be maybe the most popular one or the one that people are like, they buy this one and then they’re kind of hooked on your brand.

Vanita: That’s a great good question, Stacy. I’m the most excited about the gifting items on our website. Okay, so let’s back that up. We have website labante.com and Labante Co UK. So if you come on those websites, you have a gifting section. I’m most excited about the travel retail gift sets that we’ve introduced. They are made from 100% plant based leather, totally biodegradable. It means they hit the landfill and at six months or a year they’ll, you know, it’ll be ashes. Wow.

Stacy: Amazing. I love that so much. That’s so cool.

Vanita: I really feel excited about it and hopefully next year we’ll use the fabric and launch it into further more products. Again, trying to make it reasonably priced and accessible is the challenging bit. But we’re working on it. And then the second part of your question, Stacy. Our most popular products are the little Bella bags. We have these very cute small cross bodies and they go into like little handhelds and they also become cross bodies. And the second gateway product, and I have to say it is our laptop bags and our tote bags because everybody’s sort of putting it for daily use, whether it’s work or travel. So these are my favorite products. It’s hard for me to say favorite because the amount of attention to detail that goes into each design and each product, it’s really phenomenal.

Vanita: So these would be the gateway products that we have, the travel retail gift.

Stacy: Sets on our website that’s so fun. We’ll be sure to link to those. Those three. We’ll link to that specific bag, your laptop and like, I don’t know, satchel kind of bags and then your gift section. And were perusing that together before we started recording. And your gift sets are so cute. They just are the perfect holiday gift, I think.
Vanita: Yeah. Thank you. And all the packaging is really pretty. It’s little white linen boxes, which are biodegradable, of course.

Stacy: Oh, I love that so much. I mean, it does not surprise me at all that you have that extra layer of touch. I know for me, when I buy from a brand and they put in just that extra little thing that makes me feel like they have thought about me as the consumer even. I ordered from a supplement company recently and it came in from the US and they included in the package this little piece of paper that was a temperature paper. And so you could know when it arrived to your house if the package had been exposed to extreme temperatures. So you would know for sure if your probiotic was impacted. So. And it will measure it as it comes.

Stacy: Those kind of little touches that, you know, as a consumer, you just feel like they really thought about me and my concerns and my delight in your case. I just, I love that so much, Vanita. I just truly admire everything you’re doing. I think that what I hope people take from our conversation is one, you know, be discerning in your purchase because in what you buy, because there actually is a real impact of that purchase that you’re making. But the other thing I hope that they hear is that you, because I know you as a friend and I know this to be true in person. I hope it comes through in our conversation. You are you know, practice what you preach. You truly care about this work that you’re doing in the world and you’re so ambitious.

Stacy: I always hear these ideas that you’re working on and it’s. It’s just been so cool to see your business thrive and the work that you’re doing in the world. So thank you so much for being with me today.

Vanita: Thank you, Stacy. Really appreciate. It was a great conversation and I’m very appreciative of you bringing me onto your podcast. Thank you so much.

Stacy: Well, thank you for you, the listener, for joining us. I hope this conversation inspired you. I will absolutely be sure to link to both the US and UK site for depending on where you are in the world. And, you know, the holidays are coming up, so it seems like the perfect opportunity to get a beautiful bag from Labonte. And thank you, as always, to Rita for her production of this podcast. I truly could not do this without her, and I am so grateful. And if you’re if you were impacted at all by this conversation or just enjoyed listening today, if you would take a moment to rate and review this podcast, it makes a huge difference in my ability to reach more listeners with the message of living a life that is beyond better.

Stacy: And I will be back with you before you know it.