Rich Underwood Beyond Skin was born in 2001 because it seemed impossible to be both stylish and cruelty-free. Founder, Natalie Dean set out on a mission to bring luxury fashion and sustainability together and created a collection of beautiful vegan shoes.
We were keen to make our shoes as close to home as possible and began our journey with a small handmade shoe factory in London, UK.
All of our shoes are now designed at our studio in Brighton, UK, and hand made with love in Spain.
Beyond Skin was worn by Natalie Portman to the Oscars in 2003; this was a pivotal moment for us and we were then able to raise awareness of the brand. From this, we caught the attention of other celebrities such as Chrissie Hynde, Leona Lewis, Ellen Page and Cheryl Cole and we are always excited to hear of any future brand ambassadors.
This greatly helped us gain momentum and recognition with the media, and led to heaps of fabulous features in the likes of Vogue, Elle, Grazia and many more. We went on to win many awards including Drapers, Grazia, RSPCA, PETA Proggy, Footwear Friends & Vegan Society to date.
We are continually researching new eco-friendly alternatives to real leather, and are proud that we now use 100% recycled PU vegan leather linings in all of our footwear, and where we can we use recycled PU’s or PET faux suedes within our collections.
Our mission is to use 100% recycled, or fully sustainable materials within our ranges by 2025.
We aspire to be a brand that people can identify with, and that is synonymous with living a sustainable luxury lifestyle.
