What's the Story?

This project is deeply personal. My own journey began in the unpredictable corridors of culture: first as a young woman working with the production team at Saturday Night Live, later as a filmmaker honored with a Peabody Award.

Storytelling shaped me. It gave me the power to see the world’s invisible narratives—whose voices are heard, whose voices are silenced, whose lives are commodified. And it gave me the courage to reframe those narratives.

With Plant Monsters, The Kind Capsule, and Cute Vegan Bags, I wanted to tell a different kind of story. A story about luxury that doesn’t cost the earth—or the lives of its creatures. A story about beauty that is not born from suffering, but from imagination. About choosing a bag that doesn’t just accessorize an outfit, but symbolizes a more conscious kind of status. Not “I can afford this,” but “I care this much.”

There’s a spiritual shift when you carry something that aligns with your values. It’s subtle, but powerful. Your bag is with you every day—at work, on subways, in cafes, during first impressions. It becomes part of your aura. And when that aura carries ethics, sustainability, and kindness, it changes not only how people see you, but how you see yourself. You walk differently. You claim space differently. You model a world where compassion is chic.

We are in a cultural moment when women are redefining what it means to succeed, to be stylish, to matter. Just as my filmmaking once challenged viewers to think differently about art and culture, these bags are an invitation to think differently about what we wear and why. They are artifacts of possibility—bridges between the glamour we crave and the world we want to live in.

For me, Cute Vegan Bags is not just a brand. It’s a love letter to animals, to our planet, to every woman who knows that fashion can be playful and principled. It’s also a reminder: we all have the power to tell new stories. Some of us do it with cameras, some with comedy sketches, some with the quiet confidence of carrying a cruelty-free bag into a room that still expects leather.

Cute Vegan Bags stands for that quiet confidence. It stands for ethics made elegant, for sustainability made sexy, for compassion carried on your arm like the most natural luxury in the world.

Because the future of fashion isn’t leather. The future is love.

Story Safford

October 2025

About Story Safford, Founder of Plant Monsters

Story Safford is an award-winning creative director, documentary filmmaker, and brand strategist with a career spanning film, fashion, and technology.

A Peabody Award recipient for documentary filmmaking, she began her career on the production team at Saturday Night Live before moving into brand storytelling and experience design for global icons including Netflix, NBC, Disney, Expedia, Dell, Comic-Con, and Sony Pictures.

This work has earned multiple Clio Awards and helped shape how consumers connect with purpose-driven brands across media, wellness, and lifestyle sectors.

After decades of helping other companies define their vision, Safford turned her creative expertise toward her own, founding Cute Vegan Bags, a luxury cruelty-free fashion brand redefining modern status through compassion and conscious design.

Cute Vegan Bags represents a new chapter in ethical style, merging her background in filmmaking, UX innovation, and emotional storytelling into a brand that proves values and aesthetics can coexist beautifully.

Safford is also the creator of The Kind Capsule, a fresh content driven membership community and online course designed to help women veganize their wardrobes and lives with intention.

Through these ventures, she continues her lifelong mission: to blend storytelling, ethics, and empowerment, and to show that it’s never too late to claim what you’ve earned, rewrite your story, and carry it forward with style.