Mindful. Vegan. 110% Sustainable. That’s the tagline for footwear brand AERA, which CFDA member Jean-Michel Cazabat founded with Tina Bhojwani and Alvertos Revach with the mission to “make sustainability the new normal.”

For Cazabat, the impetus was the birth of his daughter Aria four years ago. That moment, he said, “made me more aware of Mother Earth and the condition we are leaving the world for future generations.”

Bhojwani, a fashion executive who had worked at Donna Karan, Theory, and Dolce & Gabbana, elaborated that AERA was started “out of a desire to create a positive impact on our planet and to prove that luxury design and quality don’t have to be compromised in the name of sustainability.”

She discussed the topic over dinner with Revach, a friend from university, and together with Cazabat, the trio launched the company last year. The rest is vegan history.

“The timing is right for a sustainable vegan shoe collection as the customer is increasingly ethically minded and asking for eco-friendly options and, simultaneously, we saw a void in the luxury footwear space,” Bhojwani noted. “Thanks to innovations in both materials and technology, it is truly exciting that people cannot tell the difference between our materials and those used in the designer footwear market today.”

The brand uses processes and materials that are as sustainable as possible, and goes beyond that “by scientifically measuring our impact on the planet and offsetting those impacts by 110 percent,” Bhojwani continued. “This is achieved through a partnership with SCS Global, a leading third-party environmental certification agency. We are a totally transparent company and our lifecycle assessment is published on our website.”

The brand is indeed committed to sustainability in an impressive, detail-oriented way from the leather-like vegan materials to the manufacturing process to packaging and shipping (click here for more detail).

And they’re delivered with ample chic.

“The philosophy of the collection is to create timeless and seasonless silhouettes, which is ultimately more sustainable,” said Cazabat, who’s lately been sporting the collection’s Jean-Mi boots in python effect. “Our idea was to cover any moment of the day from the casual to the more formal—we make flats that work well for taking the kids to school or to go shopping, mid-heels for work or even walking in city, and sexy heels for evening. And, of course, we have my signature boots for any moment. We don’t have season-specific collections and you can find our essentials—sandals, boots, ballerinas, or pumps—available all year round.”

The name “Aera” means “to lift” or “to raise” in ancient Greek – a symbol for the way in which this brand raises sustainable standards.

“Initially, our goal was to explore and educate ourselves about possible eco-friendly solutions available in the footwear space,” Bhojwani said. “To do so we had to challenge the standards that exist with the ultimate goal to help create a new normal in luxury fashion with transparency and sustainability at the heart. We want to share our learnings as we believe it must be a collective effort to preserve our planet for future generations.”