15 May
Pick up an ethical Bargain at Bochica's Pop-Up Shop

Bochica are teaming up with the wonderful eco designer Emmeline4Re in her Soho Boutique to bring you a week long ethical fashion extravaganza in the Pop Up Shop. There will be bargains galore, ethical stylists offering tips and advice and with ethical fashion items starting as low as £5 you can be sure to pick up steal or two! Hope to see you there!

Emmeline4re Boutique
9 Princes Street, London, W1B 2LQ (above the Salvation Army Shop)
May 18, 2009 to May 22, 2009

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10 May
Cutting Edge Green Tour - London

The private tours are developed and led by coolhunters who know London inside out and on offer is a Green Tour and the Green Retail Tour offered by Insider Trends.

If you want to keep up with the latest and greatest green developments in town, there's a new place to go.  Cate, Insider London's founder and Head of Trends, has started a new blog on Changents.com

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27 April
Discovery Channel - Whale Wars

Discovery Channel's Whale Wars follows the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society as they seek to end whale hunting once and for all.  Monday 27^thApril - 9pm.

 

They look at the boat itself: Captain Paul Watson shared his views and opinions on the whaling controversy, as well as the motives of the entire Sea Shepherd crew.

 

To get your own opinions across or to have your say on the whale debate visit the forum - or for something more lighthearted, give their audio match game and jigsaw puzzle a try.

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24 April
Humourous Views - Animals Save the Planet

Great little videos to highlight how we can take care of Motherearth.

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24 March
New White House Vegetable Garden


Michelle Obama will today be breaking ground on a new White House vegetable garden! The plot, which will be located on the South Lawn, will supply the White House kitchen. The First Lady will work with students from Bancroft Elementary School in the District of Columbia — who will help plant the fruits, vegetables and herbs in the coming weeks and harvest the crops later in the year.

Fab news and click here for more information.

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11 March
Help End Commerical Seal Hunt in Canada

Senator Harb is requesting support for an immediate end to Canada's commerical seal hunt.
Please assist this compassionate cause by sending an email to the Canadian Senate.
Thank you in advance for your support.

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10 March
Arrival of Spring Offer

Here's a little gift from Bourgeois Boheme to our customers to help celebrate the arrival of Spring!

Bobo is offering 10% off shoes and accessories until midnight on Wednesday 8th April.

Simply enter the code BOBOSPRING at the checkout and save on our beautiful collection of stylish, leather-free shoes and accessories.

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9 March
Feeling Lonely In Bed ........  Not anymore!


The "Boyfriend Pillow wraps comfortably around you and doesn't snore.  "He provides pleasure and fun for lonely hearts who want to spend bedtime pleasure with a man."  Good grief!

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23 February
Bourgeois Boheme's Isis voted Top 10 at London Fashion Week's Estethica

 
 "Be the smoothest girl in town with these super shiny patent black shoe boots that'll go with everything"

 "these shoes complete London's ultra-stylish eco look"

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20 February
Bourgeois Boheme at London Fashion Week

  
Bourgeois Boheme showcased some of their footwear designs as part of an unforgettable renegade catwork outside the Natural History Museum to showcase the best of British ethical fashion.  Eco is truly the future of fashion.

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26 January
Polar Bear on the Thames
Some people might have been a little surprised to see a polar bear floating down the river Thames on their way to work. This was arranged to highlight the plight of the polar bear as the ice caps melt.

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20 January
Obama Day

Today's the day we've all been waiting for (some of us for eight long years). Today is Barack Obama's Inauguration Day. Here's hoping that he manages to live up to all our expectations,  and we have less war during this Presidency!

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12 January
Primark No Longer Ethical

Primark has once again come under fire for under-paying their workers. A recent investigation run by the Observer found that one of their suppliers were paying illegal immigrant workers in Manchester just over half the minimum wage, and the workers also complained of working 12 hour days, 7 days a week. Primark say that they are shocked by the news and are launching an investigation. So far, so predictable.

However, this time Primark have agreed to remove any Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) branding from their tills and website while ETI investigate these claims. Seems a bit odd, as Primark have been subject to many of these investigations with no such consequences from the ETI. So is this the straw that broke the camel's back? Or is this being treated differently as it happened in Britain? Thoughts?

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6 January
Happy New Year

Now that Santie has been and gone, and we've all already broken our New Year's resolutions, it's time to get down to the important things in life, and here at BoBo, we believe that's shoes. So we thought to ourselves, "now, what's even better than new shoes?" We came up with new shoes on sale. So check out all our special offers now, as you only have until the 18th to snap up this fantastic offers!

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 23 December
Feeling Sexy?

We have all heard of PETA's Sexiest Vegetarian poll, well it's time for Leona Lewis and Anthony Kiedis to step aside, because now PETA are trying to find the Europe's Sexiest Vegetarian, amoungst us non-celebrities. Just fill out this short form and submit three photos by the 16th of January, and see if you have got what it takes. The winner will receive a 2 night break for two in the Lake District.

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15 December
Food for Thought
Fancy getting your hands on Cameron Diaz's lunch? Well it could be yours - and you won't even need to beat her up for it. Cameron is one of the celebrities who has designed a lunch-box for auction, with all proceeds going to the Food Bank of New York City and the Lunchbox Fund (which feeds impoverished school children in South Africa). You have until the 18th, so get bidding now!

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09 December
How Free is Our Speech?

Celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in a night of debate, performance and film chaired by human rights lawyer and freedom of speech champion Helena Kennedy QC, between 7 and 10pm at the South Bank Centre on the 10th of December.

The programme includes short films and performances by film-maker Rex Bloomstein, Pants to Poverty and The Refugee Council.

Helena Kennedy chairs a discussion on freedom of speech, with a panel including playwright Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti and international labour rights activist and academic Khorshed Aslam. The evening also includes specially commissioned performances and installations in The Front Room. You can get more details of the event here.

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09 December

No More Vegan Shoes?

The credit crunch has claimed another victim. Te Casan, who were behind the Natalie Portman line of vegan shoes has recently folded, and have wasted no time in taking down their website.

It is unclear whether Natalie will continue with her line with anyone else. Cheer up Natalie, at least you still have your BoBo boots!

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1 December, wee hours of the morning...

VAT Savings from BoBo...just in time for Christmas!

It's pass midnight and we are up to amend our systems so that Bourgeois Boheme can pass on to our EU customers (including UK customers) the recent government initiative to reduce Value Added Tax by 2.5% to 15%, so our prices may now look a little bit odd due to the 2.5% change.

This will be affective from December 1, 2008. Hopefully this will mean a little more pocket money for Christmas!

Sorry, but the savings are only applicable to EU customers as non-EU customers do not have to pay any VAT.

27 November

BoBo Christmas Party

As a big thank you to all who have supported us throughout the year, Bourgeois Boheme will be hosting a Christmas Party with Pants to Poverty on the 4th of December .

Join us in Our Eco Shop, in Notting Hill between 6 and 8pm for drinks and nibbles (coming from Happy Kitchen, so you know that it will be full of tasty-goodness!).

Space is limited, so please email your RSVP  if you would like to attend. We will only be able to accept the first 40 people, so let us know early if you want to attend, to avoid being disappointed.

It's expected to be the best underwear/ shoe Christmas party in town!

19 November

Eco Knickers?

This maybe a controversial statement, but sometimes people take this recycling thing too far. Take these knickers for instance. They are made from recycled drink cans, and if you think that you could wear them for more than five minutes on the trot, more power to you, but there may be a touch of masochist to your personality.

18 November

BoBo Founder one the the Future 100

Alicia Lai, founder of Bourgeois Boheme was recently named as one of the Future 100 Young Entrepreneurs of 2008. The Future 100 celebrates young entrepreneurs aged 18-35 who are demonstrating entrepreneurial flair and innovation in progressing a responsible business venture, such as Bourgeois Boheme.

17 November

Natalie Portman in BoBo Boots

We were thrilled to see pictures of Natalie Portman on the set of her latest picture, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits. Are you thinking that maybe those boots look familiar? That would be because they are our very own, Venus Brown! BoBo customers recently voted Natalie Portman The Most Fashionable Vegan, and you can now bag her Hollywood style right here at Bourgeois Boheme.

13 November

Does the Shoe Fit?

What do you want from us? Do you want dressier shoes, more casual shoes, more comfortable shoes or more fashionable shoes? Maybe all four and more?

Just take 60 seconds to tell us all about what we can do to serve you better by the 16th of November. All the results will feed back to making us the best Bourgeois Boheme we can be! As a big THANK YOU, all entrants
who want to will be entered into a draw for a subscription to Ethical Living magazine for a year and a £25 voucher for Bourgeois Boheme. Just think of all the lovely goodies you could buy with that!

11 November

Pant Flash - Be a World Record Holder

 
Join Pants to Poverty in this first-ever Guinness World Records attempt for the most people ever gathered in their underpants! 

9.30am Thursday, 13th November (Guinness World Records Day)
St Pancras International train station to make history in your pants!

Our Eco Shop

Our Eco Shop offers a whole host of ethical goodies for your Christmas shopping in Notting Hill, and best of all, you can find Bourgeois Boheme products there! We will be at the shop, from the 17th of November to the 24th of December (for all you last minute shoppers).

Check out all the details at Our Eco Shop. 

Primark voted Britain's least ethical clothing retail

The survey, carried out by Populus for The Times newspaper, found that of all UK clothing retailers Primark was viewed by consumers as the worst offender when it came to addressing social and environmental issues.

Marks & Spencer topped the table as the retailer best addressing social and environmental issues, followed by George at Asda and Debenhams.

The survey showed that the overall rating of every high street retailer has either gone up or stayed the same over the past year, except for Primark's rating, which fell.

What do you think?  Is Primark the only ugly duckling and are other companies better or they just have not quite made it onto Panorama yet?

23 October

Your Shoe's Carbon Footprint

It sounds like an no-brainer, which shoes are more eco; locally produced leather shoes, or non-leather shoes flown in from China? The answer may surprise you! Timberland found that flying a shoe in from China only represents 5% of its carbon footprint. The main cause? Leather. A single cow produces the equivalent of 4 tonnes of CO2. Want to feel extra smug? Help yourself to BoBo's latest range, manufactured in Portugal.

Banksy makes a stand for Animals

Banksy's set  "The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill" questions our relationship with animals and the ethics and sustainability of factory farming.
Let's hope it gets people thinking about how we mistreat our fellow friends and take action.
Is Banksy veggie or vegan, must look that up! 
Click for more information.

How Much are Your Morals Worth?


Leona Lewis may sing about "Bleeding Love", but there's no blood involved in her fashion. A committed vegetarian, she recently turned down £1 million offer to open the Harrods sale, as she doesn't support their continued use of fur. Good for you Leona, no price is worth the death of our furry little friends.

30 September

The Cinnamon Trust

The Cinnamon Trust are the only specialist national charity for people in their last years and their much loved, much needed companion animals.

A network of 8,000 volunteers help 10,000 owners to provide vital loving care for their pets. Cinnamon Trust keep them together - for example, they'll walk a dog every day for a housebound owner, they’ll foster pets when owners need hospital care, they’ll fetch the cat food, or even clean out the bird cage, etc.

When staying at home is no longer an option, their Pet Friendly Care Homes Register lists residential/nursing homes happy to accept residents with pets. And when a pet is bereaved they take on full time, life time care.

Want to get involved? You can get more details here. Alicia has done it before and can vouch for how much fun you will have volunteering!

Knowing what ingredients are vegan is getting more difficult nowadays – who even knows what half of the stuff that’s in our food is? Here is a helpful list of all ingredients to avoid to live a completely vegan lifestyle. Be warned - it is a little long to take with you to the supermarket…

8th August
As the Olympics begin in China, PETA is hoping to use this attention to stop the suffering of the animal's in China's fur trade. Fur from cats and dogs is being sold, often misleadingly labeled as "Asian Jackal" or "rabbit" when being sold in other countries. The animals can be skinned alive, some even remaining so for several minutes after their fur has been removed.
So what can you do to help? You could sign the petition or make a donation and make sure that your family and friends are aware of what's happening.

6th August





It has been a while since we have last updated this blog. Our excuse? we have been too busy preparing our new Earth Goddess range - I think you'll be pleased. This trans-seasonal range is eco-friendly as well as animal-friendly and gorgeous to boot (or to shoe, should I say). They are available now - start clearing space in your wardrobe!
And the buzz is growing. Fashion, evolved (the blog that doesn't believe fashion should come at the price of the planet) recently featured us, saying, "a collection of shoes that’s not only eco-friendly but exceptionally stylish too".
 The Guardian is also loving the new range. "These wonderful organic cotton and patent buckle shoes ... have jumped to the top of my wish-list".

12th May 13h57


For the third year in a row Bourgeois Boheme has scooped up a PETA Proggy Award. We are super-duper chuffed to have been awarded the Best Cruelty-Free Online Vendor.

Very nice.

8th May 15h36

We've just received a very large box filled to the top with gorgeous raw chocolate. Yum! The office was a-buzz until we realised that we couldn't eat it because its for you!
 
The Raw Chocolate Company have kindly given us 50 raw chocolate bars (although by tomorrow it may only be 49) for our SHOP OPENING; we're giving a goodie bag (filled with lovely vegan munchies, bath bits and other things) to the first 50 guests who arrive at our shop opening on the 17th May. We'll see you there.

See our below blog for details.

If you haven't heard the big news already, the BoBo shop is open! And its the very first vegan fashion store in London. We don't just step out in style, we're a step ahead in style too.

 We're having an official BoBo bash on the 17th May to celebrate, so please RSVP and come along.
By the way: did you know that RSVP means Répondez S'il Vous Plaît (French: Please Reply; commonly seen on invitations) or Residential Street Vitality Program (which we kind of feel we're doing to our street just by opening a vegan store) or Resolve to Stop the Violence Project. We reckon we're good for all of those.

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9th April 17:00

Swanky Veg is hosted by gorgeous from head to toes Ali Berman, model, writer and animal rights activist (photo below)
     


Ali created Swanky Veg blog to give you info and links to the latest trends, best deals, new accessories and always cruelty free items no matter what your budget, for your busy and compassionate life.

Comment from Swanky Veg: "Check out Bourgeois Boheme’s collection and treat yourself to a belt. We know it feels like a huge luxury - keeping your pants up and all, but don’t worry. You can do it"...

We at BoBo have enough belts - of different colors, sizes and styles for men and women to keep your pants up and to add even more swankyness to your looks ;)

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7th April 15h29

Last week the BoBo team put on their party gear and headed to Old Street for a PETA UK event at London's latest and loveliest vegan hot spot, SAF (Simple Authentic Food). If you've not yet been lucky enough to savour the wonders of raw-food you're sorely missing out on one of the most yummy-to-tummy vegan food adventures around- don't think rabbit food, think gourmet delicious!

Alicia looked ultra-sharp in her BoBo Lalitas and, if there had been such a bizarre thing as a most-stylish-vegan-men's-shoes-competition, Van would have been the clear winner of course! He styled the lovely Pensadors and garnered much admiration.

So the food was super-duper yummy. All hail the chef. We're still going on about SAF's raw chocolate mousse cake. Yummy!

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6th April 11h00

Don't know what Carbon monoxide, Greywater, Hydrofluorocarbons or Vermicomposting is? Learn "ABC" of ecoworriers at the Green Glossary on Life Goggles blog and impress your friends or colleagues with the new green terms in your vocabulary.

Life Goggles is an eco blog started by two twin brothers, Adam and Joel. Adam is blogging from London and Joel from San Diego, California. Double power fighting for environment!

Adam and Joel think that love for environment is worth a prize. Watch out for the Life Goggles massive competition to give away a lot of green stuff that is about to be launched!

Thanks for featuring our shoes, folks!
 

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27th March 16:00


"We don't believe in buying green and ethical just because it's the right thing to do. We think it's the smart thing to do -- the products are often better designed, usually better for your health and wealth, and always better for the planet," - says Smart Planet, website about conscious living and consuming that covers everything from transport to beauty.

Smart Planet writer Mathew Sparks suggests to "walk a mile in Bourgeois Boheme new shoes" in his article about our recent Espiritual and Jiva launch.
Thanks, Mathew!

Bourgeois Boheme would only like to add that one could also drive a mile, cycle several miles, dance for hours in BoBo new shoes and let them guide her towards new adventures. Write us about fun, unusual, amazing things you've done with BoBo shoes on your feet and you may win a prize, just like Alexis!

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26th March 13h40

  Style saves the world, so does Meg Donohue in her Style Saves the World blog.

Meg is a blogger-writer-journalist, who wrote for msn, aol, cnn.com and Vegetarian Times! 
Her moto is "Be glam. Live green".

At www.stylesavestheworld.blogspot.com you will find lots of green tips on how to live with glam and style. 

Hopefully our animal print ballerinas somehow contribute to saving the world too!

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20th March 12h30

A carnivore, who was on the Hollywood best dressed list turned vegetarian and found himslef on the worst-dressed list,  and then became vegan, Stylish Vegan.

When Jerry decided to be both vegan and stylish, he went on a crusade searching for fashionable men's vegan clothes and shoes on the web and created www.thestylishvegan.com, where he complemented us on our Espiritual range. How flattering!

Jerry, you've got the girls in the office intrigued - send us your photo in your best suit!

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19th March 16h51

The Soya Debate

On the subject of soya and environmentalism, we found a really good article published on guardian.co.uk in which the pro's and con's of soya production are discussed with the 'The King of Soya'. Its an interesting fact that most soya is in fact produced as cheap and effective livestock feed. Not even the soya bean remains innocent in the modern age!

Its interesting (high-protein) reading.

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17th March 16h09

My organic box scheme is just not working out for me this Easter, so I visited Sainsbury's earlier today to buy some vegetables for my rather empty-looking fridge.

I picked up a bag of very English-looking apples (my favourite); spied out some lovely grapes (and then decided against them, they're from South Africa); ambled over to the organic plums, which won me out until I realised they were from Argentina. Well how about Pears? No, they're also from another continent. I then realised my lovely 'English' apples were from Argentina too.

Almost empty-handed I thought to visit the vegetables. Ooo spinach, but packaged in the thickest, meanest looking plastic I've ever seen- you could fix a leaking roof with it.

Vegetarian/Vegan may be touted as a much more eco-friendly option diet-wise, but is it really so great when all our food is packaged in plastic, sprayed with poisons (in the case of non-organic) and brought from miles away?

A BoBo friend saw a documentary this weekend on how soya production is ravaging forests in South America and it does make you wonder, if your thinking truly eco-friendly is pre-packaged and processed soya really a better answer to meat? I'm talking strictly eco-wise, soya is of course without a shadow of a doubt the compassionate choice.

So how far do we need to go to get back to what I call a 'real-meal'? I imagine a real-meal to be food grown in our own environments, prepared simply and freshly, without the need for packaging and over-processing. It is an ideal, but an entirely reachable ideal I think.

I always say to Mo, our BoBo friend, "perhaps its not perfect but we're all doing the best we can." I'm sure that compassionate is always best, that local is possibly better than flown-from-across-the globe-organic, and local and organic is tops in all ways. I still do love my quinoa and cocao nibs, and every now and again the grapes from South Africa are just too tempting, the Pineapples from Ghana too.

Perhaps we all just need to strike a balance.

I left Sainbury's without a thing in my hand today and signed on to another box-scheme for this week. I'm soon to receive a wonderful box of delicious-veggie-all-sorts, grown in this country, and somewhere near. Its goes to show, its really not so hard.

Great box schemes:

Riverford
Abel and Cole

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14th March 11.50 am

Their office is run on green electricity and their site is hosted with a 100% wind powered hosting company. All Things Eco, we are impressed!
ATE is a family run eco portal and is a must to add to your favorites if you are committed to living greener. We were proud to see our new shoes range featured in their news section - 
http://www.allthingseco.co.uk/Eco%20News%20-%20February.php

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12th March 1150

Is being Green Costing you the Earth?



Giles Miller has come up with a bag made from part-recycled and sustainably-sourced corrugated cardboard with leather (a no no from us and not so green) straps.  The bag will reduce your bank balance by £180!  It says somewhere that the designer is able to manipulate the material into patterns and shapes never-before achieved through such an apparently mundane material, but is the price tag not really taking the mickey and exploiting the green agenda?  Hey I am all for green fashion but should it only be reserved for the rich?  Would you pay £180 for a piece of cardboard? I know I wouldn't. Alicia

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10th March 15h30    

"The G Living Network is all about a next-generation lifestyle simply called "G."
The "G" Lifestyle is about products and services that are so well designed they become objects of desire. ..It's all about design, technology, knowledge, style, food, having fun and re-thinking how we live now and how we should live in the future ".

Let's get it straight: Bourgeois Boheme shoes became a G-living object, object of a "G" generation desire, and that's why they - Good, Gorgeous and Glamorous - were spotted by an ethical fashion writer Winston Gieseke. G, we got it!






                                                    
http://gliving.tv/fashion/bourgeois-boheme-turns-the-other-foot/

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7th March 15h56

BoBo is taking over cyberspace byte-by-byte: blog masters discover us, and we discover them...
The Discerning Brute - blog by the ethically fabulous man Joshua Katcher for think-alikes. Joshua is Brooklyn-based artist, lifestyle-television producer , environmentalist, vegan, and social justice advocate. Joshua, you are a busy guy! What about a pair of Pacificador?

http://www.thediscerningbrute.wordpress.com/2008/02/13/bourgeois-boheme-shoes/%20%20