Australian husband and wife team, Van Tran and Alicia Lai, recently opened a vegan and ethical footwear and accessory shop in Richmond, London. The opening coincided with the UK’s National Vegetarian Week aimed at promoting meat-free living to the wider community.

Originally hailing from Sydney, Van and Alicia moved to the UK in 2000 after backpacking through Europe. The pair then started Bourgeois Boheme as an online business in 2005. They say the move to open a physical retail store was spurred by the growing interest in vegan and cruelty-free lifestyles in London.

‘It was a case of the right time and the right place. There was no doubt in our minds that UK vegans needed a better choice of animal-friendly fashion and we were there to fill the gap,’ said Alicia.

In extending their business from an online to a physical retail location, Bourgeois Boheme is responding not only to customer requests for a try and buy service but also to one of the key problems in online footwear retail; almost 90 per cent of returns from online sales relate to shoe-fitting issues.

Visitors to both the online and London stores can expect to find a wide range of footwear, bags, wallets and belts (for women and men), and cosmetics. Van and Alicia say that they are impressed with the growing number of online customers from Australia.

‘It’s wonderful to see our dream of a vegan fashion company becoming a reality; we’ve now got our sights set on bringing what we’ve built back home. Next stop: Bourgeois Boheme Sydney,’ said Van.

Bourgeois Boheme

Hydrex House, Garden Road, Richmond, London, UK