British Fashion Brand Belstaff Ditches Fur Following CEO’s Animal Welfare Concerns

The popular luxury British clothing and accessory company Belstaff has joined a growing number of brands and designers ditching fur.

According to Menswear Style, Belstaff’s recently appointed CEO Helen Wright is responsible for the company’s shift after learning from the animal rights organization PETA how coyotes, among other animals, are brutally skinned for their fur.

The brand’s step towards transparent apparel was commended by PETA. “Today’s luxury consumers want nothing to do with the cruel and un-British fur industry that catches animals in barbaric, bone-crushing steel traps, where they can languish for days before they eventually die from hunger, thirst, blood loss, or predator attacks or are bludgeoned to death by returning trappers,” PETA Director of Corporate Projects, Yvonne Taylor, told the media publication.

“PETA commends CEO Helen Wright for doing the right thing for animals and consumers by ushering in a modern, compassionate no-fur policy at Belstaff,” Taylor continued.

It’s estimated that upwards of one billion animals – from rabbits to foxes, minks, bears and more – are killed for their fur annually.

The iconic brand follows in the footsteps of numerous designers ditching fur. The luxury Italian designer brand Versace recently announced that it has dropped fur altogether. “[F]ur? I am out of that,” Donatella Versace said. “I don’t want to kill animals to make fashion. It doesn’t feel right,” Last October, Marco Bizzari, the head of designer fashion brand Gucci made a similar statement. “Do you think using furs today is still modern? I don’t think it’s still modern and that’s the reason why we decided not to do that. It’s a little bit out-dated.” Fashion magazine InStyle also recently announced its anti-fur policy.

The shift is also occurring in an increasing number of cities and countries around the world. Luxembourg updated its animal rights laws and became the tenth country in the European Union to outlaw fur farming. Aligned with its newly fur-free status, the updated law also prohibits the unnecessary killing of any animal. The legislation “innovates, modernizes, brings more rigor and precision [to the country’s animal rights laws],” Luxembourg’s Agriculture Minister Fernand Etgen in a statement. In the U.S., San Francisco announced a fur ban earlier this year.

Image Credit: Belstaff