They’re here! Well, they’re here for pre-order at the Te Casan website.

Yes, I’m talking about Natalie Portman’s line of vegan shoes.

The first styles from the new line are up on the site, and you can preorder them to your heart’s content (well, up to the 100 pair per style per size limit, that is).

Personally, I’m not blown away by any of them. They’re a bit on the simple side for my taste, but they are indeed classy and dressy and presumably higher quality than a lot of the other vegan lines out there, which are often made with pretty poor materials just because they happen to not come from animals.

Let’s take a look, shall we.

The Pippa mary jane pump ($325) looks particularly snazzy in this silver.

The Pia ballet flat ($185) is cute with its little strap across the toes.

And… well… those are the only two I particularly liked. The rest just seem a tad too basic, although I recognize that may well be the point: to provide vegan shoe lovers an option for classy, basic, well-made shoes. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

I’ll certainly keep my eyes open to see what future styles come down the pike.

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While browsing the beautiful Te Casan website to see whether they’ve got any more news about the upcoming shoe line by Natalie Portman, I found instead a few shoes that caught my eye–both in a good and in a blah way.

From designer Niki Robinson come these Jenifer T-Strap velvet flats, $245, made with recycled velvet/suede fabrics from Oxfam GB, a global development, advocacy and relief agency working to put an end to poverty world-wide:

This style comes in a variety of rich, deep colors, and the contrast with the gold leather is just beautiful. Definitely something to wear at your favorite charity meeting or while organizing an event for said charity and you have to be on your feet all day.

 If you simply want to show up for said event, though, I recommend these simple yet stunning “Petal” pumps, $275, from Zoe Lee:

A simple, organic design, that plays up the natural curves of your foot and leg while remaining understated and elegant.

I’m not sure about this shoe, although its designer, Fay Baldock, had probably the best of intentions at heart:

The Finn pewter leather flat ($265) wants to be a hybrid between the now ubiquitous bootie/oxford style and a simple flat, except, it kinda falls flat at both. I’m not lying to you, at first I was attracted by its unusual cut on the vamp–too high to be a flat, to low to be a proper oxford. The more I looked, however, the proportions seemed a little off. I do, however, appreciate the contrast between the pewter leather and the green laces–I would have played up even more on this, I guess (a bolder green).  

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