Portman steps out with vegan shoes line

Look out Stella McCartney. The film actress Natalie Portman has just launched her own line of vegan shoes and they're $200 less expensive than McCartney’s animal-friendly footwear. Portman unveiled the hand-crafted range on Tuesday night at shoe designer Te Casan's boutique in New York City's Soho district. A ballet-style shoe costs $245, while the rest of the line retails for about $250 a pair.

"It is a decision I made because of my love for animals, but it is also much better for the environment," said Portman, who is due to open in two new films this month - co-starring with Scarlett Johansson in the period drama The Other Boleyn Girl, and appearing with Jude Law in the modern romance My Blueberry Nights, in which the American singer Norah Jones makes her acting debut.

Portman did not design the shoes on her own, acknowledging that the Te Casan design team "helped me sketch my ideas, from which I chose materials and colors". A glossy pamphlet distributed at the launch indicated that all of the proceeds will go to the Nature Conservancy. However, some web reports claim that a mere five per cent will go to charity.

There's also controversy among bloggers over whether the environmental impact of manufacturing Portman's synthetic shoes is worth saving the lives of cows. One comment posted on the fashion blog Jezebel reads: "No wonder hippies go barefoot all the damn time. If you had to decide between wearing more sustainable, animal-killing leather shoes and non-biodegradable, air-killing, chemical-packed plastic ones… wouldn't you?”