Jordi Casamitjana, author of the book “Ethical Vegan”, writes about the new International Vegan Interior Design Association (IVIDA) getting compassionate designers together to help build the vegan world.
It wasn’t a surprise to me.
When Simone Aïda Baur contacted me about a month ago inviting me to attend a meeting of a new organisation, it felt this was a logical thing to happen. About a year earlier, I interviewed Simone for an article as she was the first vegan interior designer I met, and I found her story very interesting. Simone founded Global Inspirations Design, an award-winning boutique interior design consultancy based in Zurich, and she is Switzerland’s first vegan interior designer. She has more than 14 years of experience in the interior design industry and has worked with clients in Switzerland, the UK and the Caribbean. She is passionate about raising awareness about ethical and environmental issues in the design industry and sourcing vegan and sustainable materials without compromising style.
From what she told me during the interview, I knew that the vegan designer concept was going to grow, as it was more than just the incidental fact that some interior designers happen to be vegan. Even experienced vegans may not know how to decorate their homes or workplaces in a vegan-friendly way without the help of a professional, because it’s much more complicated than avoiding silk, leather, or wool. For instance, many towels have been softened with animal fats, and many paints are not vegan-friendly. Choosing only materials suitable for ethical vegans when advising non-vegan clients, could be considered an interesting type of subtle activism that could be quite effective.
So, I was not surprised to learn about the next logical step. The creation of an organisation where vegan interior designers get together to compare notes, help each other with what they have discovered with their research of vegan-friendly materials, and share tactics to veganise more interiors in a carnist world. This organisation is brand new, just created in the last few months of 2024, and it is appropriately called the International Vegan Interior Design Association (IVIDA). They meet once a month online, and Simone invited me to their December meeting so I could ask questions about them for this article.
What is the International Vegan Interior Design Association?
The IVIDA is so new that it does not even have a website, Facebook account, or X account, but they do have a logo and a LinkedIn page. This is what such a page says about it:
“The International Vegan Interior Design Association (IVIDA) is dedicated to building and nurturing a vibrant community of designers focused on ethical and sustainable practices. Our mission is to foster collaboration among vegan interior designers, ethical suppliers and like-minded businesses, empowering individuals and organisations within the vegan design movement. Together, we will innovate, inspire, and make a meaningful impact in the world of interior design, working toward a brighter, more compassionate future for all.
We envision a world where interior design aligns with compassion and sustainability. By championing vegan values, we ensure that every design decision positively impacts our planet, animals and communities. Our focus on education promotes innovation, sustainability, and shared growth, aligning our practices with ethical principles.
Our primary purpose is to support and empower designers and businesses that share our vision. Through regular meetups and collaborative efforts, we aim to foster a strong sense of community, facilitate the exchange of best practices, and amplify our voices in promoting vegan interior design on a global scale.
To connect our members globally, we host engaging monthly virtual meetings that provide a platform for collaboration and idea exchange. These sessions feature informative talks and panels with industry experts and innovative designers to encourage diverse participation.”
I wanted to know more about how the association was created, so, after introducing myself, I asked this question in the meeting: “I first need to know how the whole thing started. Who wants to answer? I’m sure some of you are responsible for this?”
Aline Dürr, founder of Vegan Interior Design and author of the book with the same name, who is also the organiser of the Vegan Interior Designer Week, replied from Australia with this:
“I guess I’ll start because I pulled everyone together for this. I had a conversation with Chloe Bullock, a UK interior designer who has done a lot of work in terms of vegan interior design and sustainability, and we talked earlier this year about another Vegan Interior Design Week — because so far there’s only been one that I organized in 2021, and that’s three years ago. I said it’s time for another event, and back then things were a little bit different in terms of time. I could pour all my time into that and had all the resources — which isn’t really the case at the moment — but we were talking, and I said, ‘Well, we need another event or something. We need to bring all these vegan interior designers together again.’ And then she said, ‘Well, how about we bring them all together, but we don’t necessarily need to create a big event for it? We just need them all in one room and start creating content and information together; we just need to show everyone that they’re not alone — because I found that when I talked to a lot of Vegan interior designers out there, a lot of them felt like they were the only ones.‘ I said, ‘No, there are actually many of us. Let’s bring them all together.’ So, that’s how it all started, and we’ve had these meetings since June.”
The Founders of IVIDA
Aline Dürr has been vegan since 2018 when she watched a short video about a mother cow chasing her baby on a trailer down the road while she was breastfeeding her newborn. When the documentary Dominion came out a month later, she practically turned vegan overnight after being vegetarian since she was 11 years old. She sent me this about her vegan journey meeting her interior design journey:
“As I was home with my baby, I had a lot of time to look into veganism and soon realised that my interior design profession was going to be heavily impacted by my life choice to become vegan. I looked into it more. Back then, there was some information all over the place but not very much in ONE place, so I decided to write a book about vegan interior design, which I self-published in 2020 and which won a PETA award and was an unexpected global success. Seeing the success my book had worldwide, I decided to also create an online course as the only course out there was talking a lot about animal abuse but very little about practical solutions, so I wanted to change that. While I was doing research for my book and the online course, I talked to A LOT of people all over the world and came across more and more vegan interior designers and suppliers, so in 2021 I felt that I needed to bring them all together, as most of them felt like ‘lonely warriors’ out there who were not aware of anyone else being vegan and doing interior design.“
The Vegan Interior Design Week (VIDW) held in 2021, had more than 20 speakers, four panel discussions, live workshops and suppliers virtually showcasing their vegan materials and home brands. When she decided to evolve it into IVIDA, Aline told me that she wanted to create an interactive and collaborative vegan interior design community by doing the following:
- Monthly virtual meetings (same day and time every month/ potentially two for the different time zones but ideally everyone together in one meeting)
- Monthly talk(s) either by individuals or in the form of a panel discussion which will be streamed (for free) on a specific YouTube channel (not only designers but suppliers, manufacturers, etc.)
- Facebook page/slack group/airtable or similar platform where we continuously share information or resources that are helpful for all of us
- One week ‘launch event’ of this community with talks, panels, etc. to kick this off – not as comprehensive as Vegan Interior Design Week 2021 but still something to engage lots of people
Chloe Bullock, the designer Aline mentioned with whom the idea of the association was conceived, could not attend the online meeting I was invited to. She is the founder of Materialise Interiors, a Brighton-based B Corp-certified interior design company. She was named PETA’s Compassionate Designer in their Vegan Homeware Awards and authored a 2024 book titled Sustainable Interior Design, commissioned by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). She served a term as a Sustainability Committee member for the British Institute of Interior Design (BIID). With over 30 years of experience in the design industry and most of that time in sustainability, Chloe works for clients in South East England and further away.
Another important founding member was Simone Aïda Baur, who we already discussed in the introduction, but another one who was unable to attend the meeting (there may be others I missed) was Jecks Stone. She is the founder of Persona Abode Interiors, which focuses on designing home environments for well-being. The lead-up to her career in design was spent in commercial recycling management and building conservation, the foundation for wanting to marry interiors with architecture, heritage and environmental impact. After wrestling with balancing morals with the perceived frivolity of interior design, she became one of the first UK designers to be vegandesign.org certified ™. Persona Abode advocates for greater sustainable practices and improved well-being of people, place & planet, with every project aiming to support the pools of communities affected by disadvantage.
Other Members of the IVIDA
Any association is the sum of its members, so now that we know what the intention of its founders was, I wanted to have an idea about the full spectrum of members of the IVIDA. I wanted to know if they had been vegan for a long time, what kind of business they run, how they found out about the association, and which kind of clients they deal with. First, I asked Aline how many members this six-month-old association currently has:
“We are actually a group of 21 people, and there are a few new faces here that haven’t been to the meetings yet. Because we’re an international group, and we’ve got people from both coasts of America, in Europe, and then me here in Australia, it’s a little bit tricky to find a day and time that works for everyone. So, there are a lot of people who can’t always join us, but they’re still part of the group. I think we all have great plans for this association to grow and achieve things together, and I think next year will be a great year to start a lot of things. I think that, over the last few months, we’re really just finding our feet and figuring out how we’re going to do this, and what we’re actually trying to achieve. We built this LinkedIn group, which was a first step to actually go public. But we don’t have a website or anything yet. We really just came up with a logo just in time for Vegan World Vegan month in November, and that’s when we started the Linkedin Group and everyone published their own little Q&A and introduction.”
Not all the members could attend the meeting I was invited to, but quite a few did (more than half of the association’s current members). I asked them to give me a short introduction about themselves:
Lyn Cowie – Lyn Cowie Interiors (Texas)
“I am in the centre of America, in Dallas, Texas, perhaps not the most vegan-friendly spot in the world. So, it’s really nice to join this group, just to be able to connect. In 2013 I did the Main Street Vegan Academy course (run by Victoria Moran in NYC) after being a contributor to Qatar’s leading fashion magazine I had researched the environmental and human cost of the fashion leather industry. This research ignited my journey into veganism and evolved into Lyn Cowie Interiors. I’ve been vegan for about 11 years, and it really was a compassionate choice. I just found out about food much later on in my journey and was surprised how beneficial that can be as well, but it was very much for the animals. In my business, I don’t exclusively offer vegan choices. I do offer vintage pieces that use animal products like leather and so forth. I think a lot of people would be intimidated. The end consumer needs to understand that hiring us doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re going to push those products on them. We are vegan and this doesn’t mean that they are vegan. So, we’ve just got that knowledge behind us to look further into products and see what is available. As far as the group is concerned, what’s really nice for me is that a lot of these products don’t have longevity. These new, wonderful products made out of mushrooms, apple skins, and so forth, don’t have longevity, so we don’t know if those products are going to stand up to the test of time in our clients’ homes if we start upholstering their sofas, or whatever, in these plant-based leathers. And so, it’s lovely as a group to come together and say, ‘Have you tried these products? What have you found?’ Because it’s just such a nice thing to get that global perspective.”
Simone Aïda Baur – Global Inspirations Design (Switzerland)
“I think it was Jecks Stone in the UK who was the first one I contacted regarding the association because I used to be a member of another group in the UK that meets regularly (just regular interior designers), and it’s like an alumni group from the school we’re studying. The lady there who runs that group introduced me to Jecks. So, I think that’s how the whole thing started. And then through Jecks I got in touch with Chloe, and I had like zoom calls with both of them. When I became vegan three and a half years ago, I decided to align my business with my values and offer vegan products exclusively. That’s when I started researching, and pretty soon Aline came into the picture, so I knew of her. I’ve read some of her articles and whatnot, and then eventually also purchased her book, and that was before I even met her. When Aline said, ‘We want to create this group, and we meet regularly. Would you want to be part of it?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I’m all in.’”
Liz Craig – ECC Interiors (New York)
“My name is Liz Craig. I’m based in New York City. I became vegan almost eight years ago, around the same time that I was taking classes in interior design. This is my second career, and I saw on Side Door, which is a sourcing platform for furnishings, that there was a little mini webinar on vegan interior design, and I just like had this epiphany. I didn’t even know that was a thing, it was amazing to me. I had been vegetarian for 25 years before that, and going vegan for the animals. Even vegans don’t know about all the animal products that show up in their homes. I felt driven to share this information with them. So, I was super excited. When Aline did her summit three years ago, I went all in. I do source vintage furnishings that contain animal products, but not new ones. There is something called the Vegan Women’s Summit that was organised. I went last year in New York, and then this year in L.A. This year there were about six or seven interior designers that came this time. There were just two of us, I think, last time, so it was really exciting to have this group get together. So, that’s when I met Chloe. That was super great.”
Natasha Gupta – Blue Feather Design (London)
“My company is called Blue Feather Designs, London, based in the UK. I can’t remember how I came across this group, but I know I’ve been following Aline for a really long time. I think it was from the Vegan Summit that I started following her, so as soon as she released details about this group, I knew it was something that I wanted to be part of. I’m a commercial interior designer. So, I only work on things like offices and restaurants. I don’t do any residential work, so I think they’re quite different in terms of materials. So, I’ve kind of been accidentally vegan in terms of the design work, because we don’t really use things like leather or anything like that, just simply because of the expense of it. I’ve been vegetarian my whole life, and vegan for the past 18 months or so. It’s something that I’ve always fundamentally done and a lifestyle choice for a very long time. The business started about 8 years ago around sustainability, and veganism comes hand in hand as well, in terms of what we do and how we do it.”
Heather Ditmars – Faint of Heath (Philadelphia)
“I founded my company called Faint of Heart. Just this year, in the summer. I have been vegan for 22 years. From a very small town in Ohio, and it all happened because I met a straight-edge guy who was vegan, and I thought I’d go for it so I could fit in — and it stuck. So, my company is also commercial design, mostly hospitality. I’m kind of a baby company, but as of now, I’m strictly staying vegan, with all my practices. I have taken on some clients that are not vegan and their businesses are not either. I’m doing two cafes right now that serve omni food, but they’re more than happy to be on board with a vegan designer, considering it’s an arm of sustainability.”
Jamila Sidki-Weise – JSW Interiors (New York)
“I’m working on some design projects here in Dubai, where I currently am. I previously founded another vegan business, which is a vegan modelling agency, so more from the fashion side. I connect vegan models with sustainable brands. I also have that on the side. I started to become vegan around that time when I started the agency, around nine years ago. My passion has always been interior design. That is why I have that awareness about veganism and through my career and experience in the fashion industry. I’m now obviously implementing that as well in my design work.”
Alexis Hubbard – Alexis Victoria Interior Design (Virginia)
“I did the Vegan Design Week a few years ago, and I was involved with that, I had a commitment that I could not get away from every Wednesday until just now at the end of the year. So I’m excited to finally join the group. I am based out of Charlotte, North Carolina, and my design business is called Alexis Victoria Design. I do a small-scale commercial and a lot of residential. I actually was a vegetarian, but I took a PETA course, which had videos in it. I think after that day, not only did I change my business, but I also transitioned to a 100% vegan. That was about six years ago. I do also source some vintage, sometimes for certain clients, but other than that, I am a 100% vegan-based designer. I just happen to draw in clients that kind of align with that at the moment, or that they’re interested in learning more about the process, even if they’re not vegan. There’s no pressure on them at all. I just like to have materials with me, so I can show them this is the alternative.”
Risha Walden – Walden Interiors (New Jersey)
“I am located in Milburn, New Jersey. I have been an interior designer for 15 years, and a vegan interior designer for the last eight years, and I do mainly residential design geared towards a more maximalist aesthetic. I love colour, and I love pattern and texture. So, I love to incorporate those in my designs, and I don’t really get a lot of vegans coming to me, but there aren’t a lot of vegans, so that’s okay. But I do have some. I’m actually just working with a couple of vegans right now with a home in Wyoming. It’s always more exciting when somebody comes to me because they see that I’m vegan. I did a little pop-up today at my vegan bakery around the corner. It was like a design pop-up.: Come and meet your local vegan interior designer at your vegan local bakery and let me solve a problem for you.”
Summer – Shannon Scott Design (California)
“My name is Summer, and I work for Shannon Scott Design. My boss Shannon Scott is unfortunately on a job site today, so she’s not available to attend, but I’m here speaking for us. We actually connected through veganism. I was looking for a job with a vegan company, and so I found her vegan company through the Vegan Job Board. I’ve been vegan for 12 years, and she has been Vegan for almost 30 years now, coming up on 30, and vegetarian her entire life. Her studio is based in Santa Barbara, California, and we really focus on luxury, high-end, residential renovations and boutique hospitality. We have incorporated vegan practices in our business the entire time. We have been able to function under the radar promoting and utilising all vegan materials in our projects. One of the best things about not only working for a vegan and in a vegan studio is that the success of the business has also allowed Shannon to open her own animal sanctuary. She currently has 16 rescues on her personal property, and rescued all of these cows from her neighbours who are cow ranchers.”
Jennifer Aos – Anatomy of Style (California)
“I started my business in 2004. So, it’s been 20 years, and I’ve been vegan for 10 years. It wasn’t until the pandemic lockdown that I dove in a little deeper. I became a lead certified and California green certified business, and really just studied more and more about the links with veganism and the environment. I met Chloe at the Vegan Women’s Summit last spring, and I remember mentioning to her that I thought that I was the only vegan interior designer or something like that. And she goes, ‘Oh, I’m an interior designer too’ and then we started talking. I realised I was not the only one in the world — because sometimes it does feel that way. I’ve only had one vegan client. She was a renter, so it was a pretty small project. So, I definitely need to capitalise on all the vegan celebrities in Los Angeles, because I’ve met a lot of vegans at events, and they tend to be on the activism side.”
Kelly Steyn – Philly Living (Philadelphia)
“I’m kind of the weird person here, as I’m not a designer, I’m a realtor, but I’m here to connect with you guys. And you know, hopefully, refer and learn from you. I’m a green-designated realtor. So that just means I’m passionate and educating people about how to make their homes green. It’s a passion of mine how to make a home sustainable and healthy. So, because of that, a few years ago, I started a side business of consulting people on materials and things they can use in their homes to be more sustainable and healthy. I’ve been a vegan for 13 years now, so it’s lumping all my passions and my life, my own lifestyle, into and trying to educate my clients on how they can do it in their own homes. That’s become something that I’m trying to grow and hopefully learn from you on how to consult, choosing products smartly that are ideally vegan, sustainable, and healthy.”
Christine Cavataio – Living Being Design (USA)
“I have been an ethical vegan since 2012. I started my journey by dropping land animal flesh in 1995. I was an interior design faculty member in 2012 and was teaching sustainable design as a part of all my classes — vegan ID or avoiding animal products became an extension of sustainable design. In 2018 I started this practice. I currently practice sustainable and vegan design — but most of my clients are not aware. I just started advertising as a Vegan Id in Vegnews. I am excited about this group and attended Aline’s Vegan Design Week in ’21 and was thrilled when I got her email for this group. Jordi, your book reinforced ideas I have about veganism and made me think more deeply about early experiences that led me to become an ethical vegan. Due to the fact that I grew up in the rolling hills of upstate New York and my father was a farm equipment dealer, my childhood memories naturally encompass many stories and experiences with wild and domestic animals. Today, I feel strongly that addressing environmental sustainability in our field simply falls short if the elimination of animal products is overlooked. Something that is an important part of my conversation about animal product use is the topic of luxury and how manufacturers’ marketing has cleverly created a false narrative that maintains the status quo. The formation of IVIDA is a wonderful opportunity to help expose the full impact of animal products, share alternatives and help reframe concepts around luxury and comfort in our culture. For me personally, I feel I have finally found my tribe!”
Aline told me that they also have a member in South Africa who rarely attends due to the time difference, so they have members on most continents.
I was pleased to see that most of the members I got information from have been vegan for quite some time, which I guess is not that surprising because recent vegans may not have yet learnt about all the products in furniture, decoration, and design that are not suitable for vegans. Experienced vegans are more likely to know about the non-food-related issues of veganism in enough detail to be able to advise others, so that makes sense.
It was interesting to see how many of them did a kind of vegan “activism by stealth”, in which they would proactively recommend vegan-friendly materials to non-vegans and by doing so induce vegan choices that otherwise would have been missed. I was surprised, though, how few said they had vegan clients, but to me, this makes Vegan Interior Design even more of a form of activism to veganise the world than simply the provision of a service for vegans.
The IVIDA may be more than just an association of professionals in a particular field that happens to have a common view of how to deal with non-human animals. It may actually be a vegan campaigning organisation operating with a very idiosyncratic commercial style that made them very effective in overcoming some of the barriers that more classical vegan organisations constantly face. The founders may not have set the organisation to be a campaigning organisation, and the members may not have joined for any campaigning work, but viewed from the outside, effectively persuading people to purchase vegan alternatives is a common goal of campaigning organisations for veganism. They just happen to operate differently, because they can put themselves in between the consumer and the seller as knowledgeable ethical advisors with a conscience.
It will not surprise me if the IVIDA will become very successful over the years.
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