ELENA

Who I am?
I’m Elena, 29 years old and currently living in Cologne, Germany. I work full time as an online editor which makes it rather hard to also focus on my blog.

But I’m passionate about it and motivated to grow my page more and more.

Why I became vegan: I stopped eating meat when I was 12 years old, having to fight a lot for my decision since the traditional German cuisine isn’t very vegetarien/vegan friendly. I always loved animals and realised rather late that I was eating them and not what others called a burger or bacon.

I saw a documentary about a slaughterhouse and immediatly
stopped eating meat after that. After realising that not eating animals is only one part of living an animal-friendly life, I became vegan about 5 years ago.

I stopped eating dairy and eggs and also focused on not wearing animal products as well. It was hard in the beginning: everything I liked seemed to be made out of leather or wool. 

But I didn’t stop and looked around more deeply: This made me discover many new animal-friendly brands, but I also found a lot of crueltyfree pieces at regular stores. Since I knew how hard it could be to start out as a fashion-loving vegan, I decided to start my blog/instagram
page to encourage others as well. I’m still on a starter level but my goal is it to inspire others by helping them to find cool, affordable but crueltyfree pieces and to transition
rather easily to becoming fully vegan. Crueltyfree fashion which doesn’t look too bohemian or alternative: that’s the idea behind the Vegan Closet. I like modern, stylish clothes which lean into trends - and I want to show my followers, that it’s not too hard to find animal-friendly alternatives.

My advice for newly-vegans is not to be too hard on themselves: You don’t have to throw out all your non-vegan products at once. If you own a beloved leather bag you got for a special occasion: Keep it! Sustainability is also about wearing things you like long and often. But I also hope that my blog will help others to find pieces they like and want to wear as much - without any animals being harmed.