The Female Fashion Power List: Brother Vellies Designer Aurora James on Sustainable Chic

*All this month, glamour.com is spotlighting incredible female designers—from the new class of leading women (in our March issue, on stands now!), to the innovators shaking things up, to the iconic names headlining Fashion Month. Follow along on our instagram @glamourmag, and join us on March 8, International Women’s Day, in wearing your favorite brands made by women. *After generations of lone female designers (Donna! Miuccia!), there are now so many women creating such great things. Meet a member of spring’s class of leaders, here with a woman who inspires her, in our Female Fashion Power List.

Aurora James hatched the idea for her accessory line while backpacking through Africa in her twenties. “I became really inspired by the different shoe shapes,” she says. “Then I learned that locally there wasn’t a demand for traditional styles anymore, because they were influenced by Western apparel. I didn’t want to see this tradition die.” Today the Canada-born, Brooklyn-based designer travels to villages throughout Africa multiple times a year, designing much of the collection from her tree house in Kenya (yes, she is that cool).

__The Fair Trade Crusader Brother Vellies’ Aurora James:__James, left, with model and musician Riley Montana, is known for sustainable accessories with a wow factor (hello, knee-high gladiators!). All shoes and bag, Brother Vellies. All clothing, Alberta Ferretti. On James: Ana Khouri X Narciso Rodriguez earrings. On Montana: Isabel Marant earrings.

On why she became a designer:

“I grew up wearing Mukluks from Northern Canada, and my mom has a huge collection of clogs and kimonos, so different types of cultural apparel were always in the forefront of my mind. When I started traveling to Africa as a tourist, I was so inspired I said, Why don’t I help you make these things because they’re amazing.'”

On wearing your own designs:

“You have to walk a million miles in the shoes. If you can’t walk in them, they aren’t serving you.”

On her power to empower:

“The idea that something [African people] have been doing for generations, like beading, now gets attention in the Western World makes them really proud. For so long, no one wanted to wear it, or if [Western designers] did show African-inspired things on the runway, they didn’t involve anyone from Africa. So they’re over the moon that more people in the communities are being hired for fashion.

On her efforts to be sustainable:

The fur we use is either a byproduct or it’s repurposed from vintage pieces. In Kenya, there’s a bunny farm where they’ve been eating rabbit for a very long time. The leather and fur is something they’ve never been able to do anything with. So if we use skins from the farm where they’re already eating the meat, then we’ve created a second stream of income. That’s a plus. But on the flip side, other people are like, Fur is murder.’ You can never really win; you just have to make individual choices that you feel are best.”

On why more people aren’t doing eco:

“It’s hard. When you start making sustainable choices, it also makes things more expensive. For example, for spring all our leather is chrome free. Geez, talk about effort. Chrome is’t bad for the person who’s wearing it, but it wreaks havoc on the environment in the tanning process.”

On the changing tides:

“If you want to say something, you go on Instagram and just say it. We’re in a new frontier. Everything is being disrupted, and in that sense there’s a lot of opportunity. I mean even me being here. I’m a journalism school dropout. I learned everything I know about making shoes from people in Africa. I didn’t go to Central Saint Martin’s with Alexander McQueen.”

On her plans for growth:

“I’ve always wanted to expand beyond shoes. Handbags, which I launched for spring, are one part of that. Hats are next. I love them and I wear them. But as much as I want to do many things, I also acknowledge the importance of doing one thing really well. My mom always says, You don’t want to become a master of none.'”

On being her brand’s ambassador:

“I never considered when I started the line that I needed to be an ambassador for it. I was never like, Well, I better pluck my eyebrows.’ But to me, the story behind what I’m doing is important and I want to tell that. Also, growing up, I didn’t see a lot of people that looked like me. Scary Spice was the only one, and she had a special place in my heart.”

On her muses:

“Riley Montana is an epic model, but she’s also about to be an epic performer. It’s 2016. We don’t have the same boundaries, like, You can only be a model’ or You can only make shoes.’ I also find Kanye West really inspiring. He says what’s on his mind. I don’t discount men in the inspiration process. A really good man will be there to support a woman in the way she needs to be supported.”

On the best career advice she’s received:

“Iman told me not to be afraid to get things in writing and to buckle down on numbers. Being a designer is fun, but it’s a business too. You have to be proud of that part and lean in.”

On gender discrimination:

“I travel a lot with my boyfriend, and when we first went to Africa, I would tell people to do things and they wouldn’t. Then I would hear him tell them, and they would do it so fast. It’s jarring not to be taken seriously, to have someone ignore you because they don’t think you have any kind of authority over them even though you’re the one cutting the paycheck. But I also think the best way to change people’s minds is by example.”

On the need for female designers:

“I still feel like it’s a boys’ club. When I did the CFDA/*Vogue *Fashion Fund [she was one of three winners], there were two women out of ten finalists. I remember looking around, and I was like, Woah, where are all the women?'”

On women supporting women:

“We have a dinner party series, myself and a group of other creatives in Brooklyn. We do tarot card readings and have pomgranates, cake, champagne. It’s amazing to get into a space with other women. And all ships rise with the tide. The more of us in positions of power, the more powerful we all become collectively. As Madeline Albright says, There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t support other women.'”

Fashion Editor: Jessica Sailer Van Lith

For more extras from our March issue, watch Gwyneth Paltrow’s interview on style and more: