Add a little color and pattern to your Fall wardrobe with these new boots by Sugar Shoes. Step out in style, leather-free.

Co-owner Jackie Horrick

Ask Jackie Horrick, the co-owner of Pasadena’s all-vegan clothing store Alternative Outfitters, about how she became a vegetarian.

When she was a little girl growing up in the Valley, the man who lived next door happened to own an array of animals —goats, sheep, lamb,  a sort of menagerie.

“I would go home every day and play with them,” the 37-year-old Pasadena resident says.  “They were just like my dog or my cat.”

 “I was nine years old on a trip with my mom and her boyfriend and we were in Greece.  We stayed in this little town and across the street from this butcher shop. …A big truck drove up behind [the butcher’s shop] and pulled out three or four lambs.  They tied up their legs and weighed them on the scales.  The next day, all the carcasses were hanging in the windows.”

Alternative style: "Weiner Parade" vinyl zip wallet for dog lovers

Becoming a vegetarian was an easy choice after that. 

Horrick, hasn’t looked back and, just three years ago, teamed up with her friend, Henny Hendra, 31, a fellow vegan and Pasadenan, to create their own vegan clothing store. 

“We launched the Web site in April 2004,” Horrick says.  “We started out of our homes, [Hendra] and I.”

The pair had met while working at Dole Food Company in Westlake Village over ten years ago and shared a friendly fondness for animals and vegetarianism.  They had gone their separate ways until, one day, Horrick wanted to change her career. 

Horrick began to think about the fashion business because having not worn leather since she was 16, it’s always been tough for her to go shopping and find something fashionable without animal products.

“I was talking to Henny one day and she’s always been fashion conscious and we both wanted to do something different,” Horrick says.  “We thought there must be a need for [animal] cruelty-free clothing.  We didn’t know at the time how many people are out there that didn’t want to wear leather and felt the same way as us.”

They’ve since moved out of their homes and into a sweet little space on S. Pasadena Avenue, right off Bellevue, where they ship out most of their clothing.

Now, in an increasingly eco-friendly society, there are more companies looking for sustainable goods and eco-friendly products within the last few years.

Polyurethane has replaced leather. Suede micro-fiber (acrylic and polyester) has replaced suede. Acrylic has replaced fur. 

Horrick is hard on her distributors, asking all sorts of questions about what went into the making of a product she’s buying and  making them sign fair-trade statements, to ensure that no child labor or animal products or byproducts were used in the creation of the clothes she sells. 

“Some of our clothes come from China and some of China’s fur that comes from cats and dogs,” Horrick says.

Above all, Horrick says, she wants to make sure that anyone is welcome, and that everyone knows that.

“We don’t want to make anyone feel like they don’t belong here [as a customer],” Horrick says.  “We’d rather customers buy from us so we know they’re not buying leather from someone else.”

For more information, you can visit and order clothes from their Web site at www.alternativeoutfitters.com, or call Jackie Horrick at (626) 396-4952.

Alternative Outfitters
Showroom at 408 S. Pasadena Ave.,  Suite 1, Pasadena
Call (626) 396-4972 or toll free:(866) 758-5837
Online catalog at www.alternativeoutfitters.com