Our Founder’s Vegan Story
Hey there it’s Xenia, founder of O.N.E., responsible for design work, operations, production coordination, sales and marketing, and pretty much everything in between. A lot of people ask me why and how I became a vegan. Frankly, my vegan story isn’t anything special. However, I would say that it’s quite special for O.N.E., as it turned the brand around in a 180. So I guess this is a good place to leave a spot for my vegan story, right? Well here it goes.
Back in July 2019 when I was travelling in Scandinavia, I was browsing through social media on a relaxing night in the little hotel room we stayed at in the Norway suburbs. I came across an online petition to pressure the Vietnamese government to ban the dog meat trade in Vietnam. Immediately, I signed the petition, thinking to my rather furious self, “How can these people eat these poor innocent animals!” That moment, a switch turned on in my head. I couldn’t help but ask myself whether I would have signed the exact same petition, with the only difference being the animals in concern were not dogs, but cows, pigs, chickens, sheep, fish – animals that I ate on a daily basis. If not, why? That night I went to bed confused, not being able to find an answer.
-Picture taken near our hotel
The next morning after checking out, as we were driving downhill, we stopped by to take some pictures of the beautiful suburbs. There happened to be some cows grazing nearby on what seemed to be a small, local, organic farm. Suddenly I realized a cow staring at me. I froze. It almost felt as if the cow stared straight into my soul – asking the same question I asked myself the night before. I guess you could call that sort of a spiritual awakening moment? I continued on with my trip but promised myself I’d look into my relationship with animals when I return from my trip.
-We stopped by the small, local, organic farm where cows were grazing.
After returning home from my trip, I researched. I couldn’t believe what I had found. Rather, I couldn’t believe that I had never thought about it – that an animal had to die in order for me to eat its flesh. And there was so much more. I found out about the atrocities of the animal agriculture industry and how it is contributing to the destruction of our planet. Most importantly, I realized that I was contributing to the suffering and death of these innocent animals. That moment, I decided I would live a vegan lifestyle for the rest of my life, and make it my mission to promote the lifestyle and spread the truth. It was the best decision I’ve ever made in my life.
From then on, O.N.E embarked on a journey to become a vegan brand – and I’m so proud that we have now embarked on a new journey – to make vegan fashion mainstream.
