Veganologie is Rethinking What we Carry

With its new Traveller Collection, the Dubai-born accessories label considers how material innovation, practical design and a changing understanding of luxury can accompany us wherever we go.

The things we carry say a great deal about how we live. A passport holder softened by years of departures, a bag that has accompanied us through unfamiliar cities, a luggage tag that has crossed more borders than we care to count. These objects become part of our personal geography, chosen initially for their function and eventually valued for their familiarity.

For Veganologie, the Dubai-based accessories label founded by entrepreneur Angana Maheshwari in 2022, the question is whether these everyday companions can be designed with greater consideration for the materials from which they are made.

Its latest Traveller Collection offers an interesting answer. Comprising five coordinated travel accessories, the collection brings together plant-based alternatives to conventional leather, recycled materials and a design language that favours clean silhouettes and practical details.

It also reflects a wider change in consumer expectations. Environmental responsibility is increasingly entering conversations once dominated by aesthetics, craftsmanship and brand recognition. The challenge for contemporary accessories labels is to address these concerns without allowing sustainability claims to substitute for thoughtful design.

Veganologie’s approach begins with materials.

Four pieces in the collection are made using 100% bamboo fibre leather, while the fifth, the Gemma Tote, is produced from material derived from 17 recycled plastic bottles. The distinction is worth noting because the term vegan leatherencompasses a broad range of materials, not all of which have the same environmental characteristics. Plant-derived content and recycled inputs offer alternative approaches to material sourcing, although their full environmental impact depends on factors such as processing, durability and end-of-life treatment.

What makes the Traveller Collection particularly interesting is its attempt to bring these material choices into objects intended for frequent use.

The Orbit Traveller Passport Sleeve is perhaps the most personal of the five. Its familiar rectangular silhouette is distinguished by an embossed illustration of an aircraft, a modest detail that gives the piece character without overwhelming its design. A passport holder has a relatively simple purpose, but it is also among the few accessories we repeatedly reach for at moments of anticipation, movement and arrival.

Image Source: Press Office

The coordinating Orbit Traveller Luggage Tag continues the collection’s restrained visual approach, designed to complement a suitcase without competing with it. Together, these pieces suggest an appreciation for travel accessories that remain useful and visually relevant beyond a single season.

The Orbit Traveller Wallet takes a similarly practical direction. Designed as an envelope-style holder for boarding passes, passports and other travel documents, it incorporates a magnetic closure for easy access. In an era when so much of the travel experience has migrated onto our phones, there is still a place for objects that keep essential documents physically organised, particularly when moving between airports, destinations and different travel requirements.

For those who prefer to keep their immediate essentials close, the Orbit Phone Bag offers a compact crossbody option. Its proportions are designed to accommodate the smaller pieces in the collection, allowing the accessories to function together rather than as unrelated purchases.

That sense of coordination is one of the collection’s more considered qualities. The five pieces share a visual identity, but each has a clear purpose. It is a straightforward principle that can sometimes be overlooked in an accessories market where novelty often receives more attention than everyday usability.

The collection’s most substantial piece is the Gemma Tote, a reinterpretation of the duffle silhouette intended for weekend travel and carry-on use. Made from recycled plastic bottles, it introduces a more expressive element through embroidery inspired by a magnified section of the Monstera leaf.

The botanical reference is significant to Veganologie’s identity. The Monstera appears in the brand’s emblem and across its collections, representing its relationship with nature and environmental responsibility. On the Gemma Tote, the motif becomes part of the surface design, giving an otherwise familiar travel silhouette a recognisable signature.

Image Source : Press Office

Available in Onyx Black and Veganologie Green, the collection maintains a deliberately limited palette. The green is particularly effective as a brand identifier, while the black offers the versatility expected of travel accessories designed to move between different settings.

Behind these design decisions sits a broader question about the direction of accessible luxury.

Historically, leather goods have occupied an important position within the luxury industry, where material quality, durability, construction and the prestige of established houses have shaped perceptions of value. The emergence of alternative materials is beginning to challenge some of those assumptions, particularly among younger brands seeking to establish their identities without relying on traditional animal-derived leather.

Veganologie belongs to this developing category, although its ambitions extend beyond simply replacing one material with another.

The brand works with recycled and plant-based inputs, including bamboo fibre, apple-based leather alternatives and materials developed from tea waste. Its broader product range reflects an interest in exploring how these alternatives might be adapted to familiar accessory categories.

As with any material innovation, the more consequential questions concern how products perform over time. A responsible accessory must be capable of remaining useful, desirable and sufficiently durable to justify the resources invested in producing it. Sustainability is a more demanding proposition than a material description on a label.

That makes the design of everyday objects particularly relevant. A well-considered travel bag should accommodate the practical demands of movement, while a passport sleeve or wallet should be comfortable to handle and straightforward to use. These are qualities that ultimately determine whether an accessory becomes a lasting possession or another short-lived purchase.

There is also something worth considering about the collection’s origins.

Dubai has established itself as a major international centre for travel, commerce and luxury retail, making it an appropriate setting for a brand exploring the intersection of mobility and contemporary consumption. For a company founded in the UAE, the Traveller Collection feels connected to the rhythms of a city where international movement is part of everyday life.

At the same time, Veganologie represents a growing group of independent brands emerging from the region with ambitions that extend beyond local markets. Rather than adopting the visual codes of established European luxury houses, these businesses have an opportunity to develop their own identities through materials, design priorities and a closer understanding of contemporary lifestyles.

For Maheshwari, that opportunity has been closely associated with making alternatives to conventional leather more accessible and appealing. The Traveller Collection continues that direction, presenting sustainability as one consideration within a broader design proposition rather than the sole reason to purchase an accessory.

And that may be its most relevant contribution.

Consumers should not have to choose between an object that functions well and one made with greater attention to its environmental implications. Equally, a sustainability claim should invite informed questions about sourcing, production and longevity rather than serve as an automatic guarantee of virtue.

The future of responsible accessories will depend on how convincingly brands can bring these considerations together.

With the Traveller Collection, Veganologie makes a case for a more considered relationship with the objects that accompany us. Its passport sleeve, wallet, luggage tag, phone bag and tote may be modest in scale compared with the larger debates surrounding fashion’s environmental footprint, but they occupy a part of our lives where design decisions are encountered repeatedly.

Every departure, every arrival and every journey in between becomes another occasion to use them.

And perhaps that is where the most meaningful measure of an accessory begins: in how well it serves us, how long we choose to keep it and how carefully it was conceived in the first place.