New Haven’s newest clothing store — and first vegan fashion shop — will offer shoes made from … recycled flat screen TVs.
The price won’t include cable hook-up. It will include eco- consciousness.
Andrea Kerin expects those shoes to arrive next spring at her store at the corner of York and Elm.
In the meantime, the store, called “Kerin,” does have faux-suede shoes on sale from the same designer, Elizabeth Olsen. There’s a red handbag made from 21 recycled bottles. Kerin also has on display racks of brightly colored dresses and warm Polar-tech winter coats.
Like vegan “tofurkey” or “fakin’ bacon,” the clothes for sale at Kerin’s shops are all made without any animal products — and you can’t tell just by looking. They all come from “green” and “fair trade” manufacturers.
Kerin and her co-owner, husband Chris Kerin, opened for business this week. They will formally cut the ribbon on their new shop Dec. 3.
The store inhabits the old brick Barrie Ltd. at the gateway to the Yale/Broadway shopping district.
The couple — he’s a real-estate appraiser, she a bookkeeper — lives in Easton. They chose New Haven for their shop after seeing a PETA website rank Yale as a “top school for vegetarian interest and ecological concern,” Chris said. (Chris is pictured on the left speaking with Andrea.)
The family shares those concerns. Chris is a vegan. So is their daughter Jackie, who’s 20; she spent the summer visiting vegan clothing designers in New York and scouting out other lines on the Internet. Andrea described herself as “vegetarian/ almost vegan.” Click on the play arrow to watch her discuss her views on cruelty-free clothing, as workers moved around mannequins and merchandise in preparation for Tuesday’s soft opening.
The store will house mostly women’s clothing and accessories. A small men’s section will include wallets, shoes, belts, messenger bags, and ties — made of satin, of course, rather than silk.
The Kerins have tapped into an emerging industry promoted by animal rights and eco-conscious celebs.
“Our designers are inventing fabrics out of things that are destroyed and thrown into landfills,” Andrea Kerin said. And “they’re making beautiful clothes.”
Click here, here, and here to read about three of the designers and their philosophies, which include avoiding toxins and limiting water use in production and paying fair prices to workers in developing countries.
The Kerins plan to hire live vegan models at the store. Staffers are being instructed in the ecological, animal-rights and fair trade philosophies behind the clothes.
The store associates are “studying,” Andrea Kerin said. “We’re educating as we go. Some people have more of an understanding than others. It’s a continuum. Just as we expect our customers to be on a continuum.”
The Kerins adapted the same philosophies in retrofitting the space at York and Elm.
As you enter the store, you walk on a floor composed of 50 percent recycled porcelain. You encounter clothes on tables made of of recycled wood.
The Kerins opened up the stairway leading to the second floor; merchandise will be sold on both levels. The place feels open and bright: The walls are painted white. They’re illuminated by sunshine coming through the windows as well track light—LED, naturally. “Fourteen watts,” in Chris Kerin’s words, “throwing off 60 watts of light.”